For one last time in 2017, Premier League leaders and virtual champions Manchester City will play football. Watching City this year has been amazing, but 2018 promises to be even better.
And Pep Guardiola and his men want to make sure that they finish this year with a bang.
The Blues travel to London to face Crystal Palace on Sunday looking to extend their record-breaking run of Premier League wins to 19 in a row. City could also increase their lead at the top of the table to 16 points, which would pretty much clinch the title before the new year even starts.
But it won’t be easy. December has been brutal and the matches keep coming without much time to rest, and the team is clearly tired and looking for a chance to rest. They still have two games in two days before the league takes a two-week break, so they’ll have to find the energy somehow.
In addition to the insane number of fixtures on the calendar, City will be facing a Palace side that’s lost just one of their last 9 games and are looking strong in their battle against relegation. Manager Roy Hodgson will have to make quite a few changes for this one, but regardless of who plays the Eagles will make things tough for City.
It’s hard to predict anything but a City win at the moment, though, so expect the Blues to win once again and end the year on a high.
MATCH INFO
Competition/Round: Premier League Matchday 21
Date/Time: Sunday, December 31, 2017, 12pm GMT (UK), 1pm WAT (Nigeria), 7am ET, 4am PT (USA), 5:30pm IST (India)
Venue: Selhurst Park, London, England
HOW TO WATCH, STREAM PREMIER LEAGUE
Television: BT Sport 1 (UK), NBCSN (USA), TSN2 (Canada), SuperSport 3 (Nigeria), Star Sports Select 1 (India)
Online streaming: BT Sport Live (UK), NBC Sports Live, NBC Sports Gold (USA), TSN GO (Canada), FuboTV (7-day free trial, click here to sign up)
(Listings via LiveSoccerTV)
LINEUPS
Man City: Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Mangala, Danilo; De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Gundogan; Bernardo, Jesus, Sané
Palace: Hennessey; Fosu-Mensah, Tomkins, Dann, Van Aanholt; Townsend, Cabaye, Milivojevic, Riedewald, Zaha; Benteke