Manchester City hopes to get back to the winning ways against Crystal Palace at home after dropping points last weekend.
Pep Guardiola’s men experienced a six-goal thriller at St James Park as Newcastle gave them a tough fight whereas Crystal Palace followed their win over Aston Villa with a victory in the league cup against Oxford United.
MCI vs CRY Match Details
Date: Saturday, 27 August 2022
Time: 15:00 (BST) / 19:30 (IST)
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
MCI vs CRY Match Preview
When Ikay Gundogan found the back of the net within five minutes into the game against Newcastle everyone thought the competition was over as City came into the match winning their first two games, scoring five goals and conceding none. Then the lightning known as Allan Saint-Maximin struck as his pace, control and trickery became a handful for City to defend against. The Toons directed all their attacks on the break mostly to City’s left as both Kyle Walker and John Stones found it extremely miserable to keep the 25-year-old winger quiet. He was the protagonist for the first two goals for Newcastle in the opening half leading to Miguel Almiron and Callum Wilson scoring. An already stunned City got behind further when Kieran Tripper scored a delightful free-kick past Ederson five minutes into the second half. The right-back was shown a red card later in the game for potentially a dangerous challenge on Kevin de Bruyne but VAR degraded it to a yellow instead. The Belgian showed his class again in the defining moment of the game by delivering a wonderful pass to Bernardo Silva for the equaliser four minutes after Erling Haaland got City’s second in the game. Coincidentally, City also played out a 3-3 draw in the midweek exhibition match against Barcelona at Camp Nou. The defending champions are not used to leaking so many goals in a game so manager Guardiola will not be too keen about the performance although their mentality of rescuing games from losing position is praiseworthy. Their title rivals Liverpool lost to Manchester United so the blue shirts enjoy a five-point lead over the Reds in this early period despite dropping points in their fixture. However, they need to get back to their known rhythm quickly with a tricky fixture against Crystal Palace. The same opposition that inflicted their second of their three defeats last season in Guardiola’s 200th Premier League game in charge and have stayed unbeaten in the last two meetings. Any downfall has always uplifted the team as proven by their valour in recent showings so Guardiola will be urging for all three points this weekend.
Patrick Vieira’s men quickly moved on from their opening day defeat to Arsenal with a well-earned 1-1 draw against Liverpool and a splendid 3-1 victory over Aston Villa last weekend. A 2-0 victory in the cup game against Oxford courtesy of goals from Odsonne Edouard and Luka Milivojevic in the final 20 minutes of the game meant Crystal Palace have started the season brilliantly and are looking a capable side to finish in the top half of the table this season. It’s too early to say so knowing their consistency dwindled last season but the start is good. The Eagles now enter a contesting period of games and some testing fixtures ahead with the champions to face this weekend. Brentford, Newcastle, Manchester United and Brighton fill the list of the next set of games before they face Chelsea on the first day of October. Palace will draw motivation from their two outstanding results against Manchester City last season holding them to a goalless draw at Selhurst Park, only the second team to restrict the Cityzens from scoring, and of course the 2-0 win away. Scorer of the second goal in that game, Conor Gallagher has impressed massively in his loan stint with Palace from Chelsea and remains an interest for Patrick Vieira’s side to demand a permanent move for him from the Blues. In the early exchanges, Palace sits ninth with four points on board from three games and are just three points off the holders on seven points. If they perform the miracle again at Etihad, Crystal Palace will only be the second team after Manchester United to win three away league games against a Manchester City team managed by Pep Guardiola. The Eagles have also picked up seven points in their last four away games in this fixture in the league so optimism is there. The only issue for Vieira will be his side haven’t kept a clean sheet in three league games so far which can derail their chances against this high-scoring team.
Recent Form (all competitions)
MCI: DDWW
CRY: WWDL
MCI vs CRY Team News
The growing injury list in center-back position will be a concern for Pep Guardiola as Nathan Ake survived only 20 minutes in the game against Newcastle and got substituted sustaining a groin injury. At that moment, City were 1-0 up on the scoresheet but then the home side stepped up the gear to make it 3-1 inside 60 minutes before City waxed their lyrical of turning games at their will making it 3-3 at the end. Ruben Dias was Ake’s replacement, who is now doubtful for the weekend, but his partner John Stones looked nervy. As was Kyle Walker facing a lot of problems in dealing with Saint-Maximin’s pace and trickery. Interestingly, he slotted in the center half role in the midweek friendly against Barcelona at Camp Nou with Aymeric Laporte still a week away from fitness but he will remain at the right-back spot against Palace. Left-back Sergio Gomez also featured in the exhibition game although he has to wait for his official debut as Joao Cancelo continues in his place. Jack Grealish with a knee injury and Kalvin Phillips with a shoulder injury are other doubts for the game. Guardiola in his pre-match presser confirmed that Bernardo Silva will be staying at Manchester City as the club haven’t received any phone call supposedly from FC Barcelona for his transfer.
Patrick Vieira also has a number of injury concerns to deal with before the game. James McArthur remains out with a groin injury as is James Tomkins with a muscle injury. Left-back Nathan Ferguson won’t be available with a foot injury while Jack Butland is recovering from a broken wrist. Striker Jean-Philippe Mateta made a goal-scoring impact from the bench against Aston Villa but Odsonne Edouard will start the game, in any case, scoring a goal in the midweek league cup game against Oxford United. Vieira has a set eleven to work with so he is likely to stick with it to face the holders in the away trip.
MCI vs CRY Predicted Lineups
MCI: Ederson; Kyle Walker, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo; De Bruyne, Rodri, Ikay Gundogan; Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden
CRY: Vicente Guaita; Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen, Marc Guehi, Tyrick Mitchell; Jefrey Schlupp, Cheick Doucoure, Eberechi Eze; Andre Ayew, Odsonne Edouard, Wilfred Zaha
MCI vs CRY Head to Head
Wilfred Zaha became a menace for City’s defense to handle giving Crystal Palace the lead only six minutes on the clock, played through by Conor Gallagher. The Ivorian then got Aymeric Laporte sent off for dragging him down while through on goal snapping on his heels all the time. Gallagher then turned scorer to seal all three points for Vieira’s men after another classy counterattack led by Zaha to topple City again. The champions have also got only one win in this meeting at Etihad since 2017 with the 4-0 win last January only to cheer about in that period. John Stones got a double in the win with Gundogan and departed Raheem Sterling scoring once.
MCI vs CRY Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Ederson
DEF: Cancelo, Andersen, Dias, Mitchell
MID: B Silva, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Eze, Zaha
FW: Haaland
Joachim Anderson has made the most number of clearances in the Premier League with 22 at an average of 7.3 per game. He has lost just one out of his nine aerial duels in these three league games.
Bernardo Silva scored a goal and delivered an assist on his return to the starting eleven against Newcastle. He has contributed to 5 goals in the last seven matches he has started for City in all competitions.
Kevin de Bruyne has assisted a goal in each of the season’s first three games of the season, two of them for Erling Haaland. The assist for Bernardo Silva’s leveller against Newcastle was his eighth goal contribution facing the Toons in all competitions. He has six goal contribution against Palace.
Ikay Gundogan is in hot scoring form with his opener against Newcastle being his fourth strike in his last four league games.
Wilfred Zaha has 3 goals in 3 league games for Crystal Palace and has scored in this fixture at Etihad last season. That was his 50th Premier League goal for Palace.
Eberechi Eze has completed most successful dribbles per 90 than any other player in the league with a rate of 77.8%. He has been involved in 6 goals in his last eight Premier League starts away from home.
Erling Haaland has registered three goals from three games in his career in the Premier League which takes his tally to 7 goals in his last 6 top-flight games.
