England Premier League
Sunday 17th January 2021
Kick off at 7:15pm GMT
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Match Preview:
Manchester City will the odds on favourites to win this game on Sunday evening to further increase the pressure on Liverpool. City are only a point behind the champions but have a vital game in hand and not many will be backing against Pep Guardiola’s side.
City have won their last 4 games and after a slow first couple of months in the league they seem to have clicked and are full of confidence. Their last game ended in a hard fought 1-0 victory over Brighton and perhaps one criticism of the club is that they are not scoring many goals this season. They have just 25 so far and even the likes of Leeds and Aston Villa have more. We are so used to City scoring many goals under Guardiola that it doesn’t feel right but at the end of the day 1-0 or 5-0 is still 3 points and City will keep that in mind.
Guardiola’s team have lost just once at home, have won 5 of their 8 games and have the 2nd best home record in the league. They have won back to back games at home coming into this game.
Crystal Palace are in 13th and 9 points behind their hosts, they come into this game unbeaten in their last three. Palace pulled off a good result last week by drawing 0-0 away to the in form Arsenal and stopping the Gunners recent good run of results. The Eagles are 11 points clear of the bottom three and this campaign is threatening to turn into a mid table obscure one where they are too far to challenge for Europe and too safe to be relegated.
Away from home Palace have lost just once in their last four but are finding it hard to score goals and have just 1 in their last 3 away outings. A surprise win of which they have done before at City could see Roy Hodgson’s side climb up a couple of places depending on other results.
Team News:
Manchester City: Sergio Aguero is ill and looks certain to miss this game. Nathan Ake is ruled out with an unspecified problem. Adrian Bernabe is out with illness. Scott Carson and Eric Garcia have recovered from Covid-19 and could get a call up for this game. Aymeric Laporte looks set to miss this game and has been pencilled in to return next week from his hamstring injury.
Crystal Palace: Nathan Ferguson is out with a thigh strain. Martin Kelly is out with a calf problem. Mamadou Sakho is out with a thigh injury.
Man City vs Crystal Palace Head to Head:
Last season this fixture ended 2-2.
Manchester City have failed to win the last 2 games played at home against Crystal Palace and we would have to go back to 2017 for City’s last win when they ran out 5-0 winners.
Manchester City have won 7 meetings over Palace from the last 10, with Palace winning just once and two draws.
Man City vs Crystal Palace Prediction:
Crystal Palace have certainly given Manchester City food for thought recently and this will not be as easy a game for the home side as the odds suggest.
Palace have got some good results at the Etihad and can be a difficult team to play, they raise their game for the bigger teams and it was proven again a few days ago going to Arsenal and keeping a clean sheet. It does remain a worry that City are not scoring enough goals and there is no value in backing them to win, this is the dilemma.
Therefore our main bet will be to back under 3.5 goals, which looks good value considering Palace will set up to defend and Man City aren't the goal scoring machine we've known them to be at the moment.
Man City vs Crystal Palace Betting Tips:
Total goals (Under 3.5) at 1.61
Anytime goalscorer: Phil Foden at 2.25
Correct Score: Manchester City to win 1-0 or 2-0 at 8.00 and 6.00
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