Crystal Palace vs Manchester City, 2017 FA Cup: Team News, Preview, Predictions

Let's just start this preview by explaining the absolute mess created by the schedule in England that caused this game not to be televised, ANYWHERE. Not England, not the US, nothing. Nowhere.

Here we go: this game was originally scheduled to take place on Sunday, but this weekend was also scheduled for Premier League matches, so the Premier League matches were rescheduled for next Tuesday/Wednesday (City will play West Ham on Wednesday).

Crystal Palace play their Premier League game on Tuesday (against Bournemouth), so if they were to play on a Sunday against City, they'd have just two days to rest until they had to play again. So there were two options: 1) reschedule the Premier League match for Wednesday, the same day City will play; 2) reschedule the FA Cup match for Saturday.

The schedule makers chose the second route, and set the game to be played on Saturday, at 3pm UK time. There is a problem, though: 3pm matches are not televised in the UK, because the rule is that no football should be shown on TV from 2:45pm to 5:15pm. It's tradition, we all know how much the UK loves traditions, so there will be no Palace-City on TV. Anywhere.

This is great, isn't it?

Date/Time: Saturday, January 28, 2017, 3pm local time (UK), 10am ET, 7am PT (US)

Venue: Selhurst Park, London, England

Referee: Michael Jones

On TV: NOPE.

Online: BBC Radio (UK), elsewhere

TEAM NEWS

Manchester City: Vincent Kompany will return, Gabriel Jesus will make his first start for the club, Willy Caballero will be in goal, a heavy rotation to the side is coming. The FA Cup may not mean as much when compared to the other competitions City are involved in, but Pep Guardiola will be looking for his team, whatever it is, to play as hard and as well as they can to pick up a victory and move on to the Round of 16.

Crystal Palace: Captain Scott Dann has a knock, but will probably play. Wilfried Zaha is back from the African Cup of Nations, but will be on the bench. Christian Benteke and Loic Remy will play together up front, and they're quite dangerous together, especially to the Sky Blues defense.

POSSIBLE LINEUPS

PREDICTION

We won't watch the game, so we can only hope for a win. How about a Gabriel Jesus goal (for real this time)? Maybe two? Yeah, 3-0 City and Jesus will shine.