Crystal Palace vs Man City: Preview and Prediction

Sunday 14th April 2019

Crystal Palace vs Man City: Preview and Prediction

England Premier League
Sunday 14th April 2019
Kick off at 2:05pm BST
Venue: Selhurst Park

Match Preview:

Crystal Palace have risen to 12th place and unlike previous seasons The Eagles do not have to worry about survival. In some ways cynical pundits would claim that the players could be on holiday mode, but this Sunday champions Manchester City come to Selhurst Park and it is evidently clear that Palace will be up for this game and hugely motivated to play their part in who wins the league title.

Palace’s last game ended in an impressive 1-0 win at Newcastle and at home their last game was a 2-0 win over Huddersfield although it is worth pointing out that this is Palace’s only win at Selhurst Park in their last 4 home games.

The only reason Manchester City do not have a 100% record at home is because of Crystal Palace, who before Christmas sensationally went to The Etihad and beat City 3-2. Nobody could have seen it coming and that defeat could, in the end, be the difference between City retaining their league title or not.

If Palace were to win this match or even draw it would have a significant shift in the league title given that Pep Guardiola’s team are 2 points behind league leaders Liverpool, although they do have a game in hand. The ball is in City’s court but by Sunday afternoon it could either be in Liverpool’s or be ricocheting on the net.

City’s form coming into this game couldn’t be any better as they have won their last 8 Premier League games, but there is a niggling feeling that not all is well within the team. There are two obvious problems for the side coming into this game.

The first is that they are not scoring enough goals. This time last season the club had scored 90 goals in the league, they have 83 so far. While that doesn’t seem a huge difference it has been evident that recently the club haven’t been scoring many goals. 1-0 wins over West Ham and Bournemouth and beating already relegated Fulham 2-0 doesn’t seem to cut it for a Guardiola led side, and yet of course they are still winning games.

The other problem is that they have their 2nd leg Champions League quarter final to deal with and they are losing that 1-0 against Tottenham, it comes just 3 days after this match, and surely that will be playing on the players minds and Guardiola’s, but this is a must win game for City.

 

Team News:

Crystal Palace: James Tomkins has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a groin injury. Other than Tomkins missing Palace have no new injuries coming into this game

Manchester City: Bernardo Silva should return to the squad after his thigh strain and will be assessd ahead of the game. Oleksandr Zinchenko has recovered from his muscle injury and will be assessed before the game

 

Crystal Palace vs Man City Head to Head:

In the reverse fixture earlier this season Crystal Palace beat Manchester City 3-2.

Last season this fixture ended 0-0.

Manchester City have scored 16 goals against Palace in the last 5 meetings.

 

Crystal Palace vs Man City Prediction:

Of course City will start as favourites and they should have few problems in beating Palace. However look deeper and we can see that from the last 5 games played at Selhurst Park, had you backed Palace on the handicap to start with a 2 goal lead which would have been a decent price against City you would have won 4 times out of those 5, an 80% success rate.

There is a feeling that Palace could be a potential banana skin for City this week who will be big odds on to win this match. Or just that the club will make heavy weather of a game that they want out of the way as they also prepare for their Champions League match. That is why we feel that you should be backing Palace on the handicap for value.

 

Crystal Palace vs Man City Betting Tips:

Crystal Palace to beat Manchester City with a +2 goal start at 1.91

Anytime goalscorer: Leroy Sane at 2.50

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