Manchester City vs Crystal Palace, Premier League Matchday 18: Team News, Preview and Prediction

Competition/Round: 2018/19 English Premier League Season – Matchday 18

Date/Time: Manchester City vs Crystal Palace – Saturday, 22 December 2018, 15:00 (UK & Nigeria); 10:00 EST, 07:00 PST (USA); 19:00 IST (India)

Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, United Kingdom

Match Officials:

Referee: Andre Marriner

Assistants: Scott Ledger, Harry Lennard

Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor

TV Info: N/A

Live Stream: NBC Sports Live, Fubo.tv (USA) Fubo.tv shows every Manchester City game with a high-quality and legal stream. New to Fubo.tv? Click here to sign up for a discounted rate.

Radio: BBC World Service, BBC Radio Manchester (UK); TalkSport Radio World (USA)

Preview:

The English Premier League’s Matchday 18 will see Manchester City host Crystal Palace. The Blues will face the Eagles on Saturday.

Following their first league defeat of the season, City have bounced back quickly with back to back wins against Everton and Leicester City. The Blues now find themselves a point behind current league leaders Liverpool in the EPL table whilst also securing a place in the EFL Cup semifinals. Despite the recent setback, the Blues are still on course to retain the EPL title.

Crystal Palace, on the other hand, find themselves in fifteenth place in the EPL table. They have only managed four victories in 17 matches and have lost a staggering 11. Moreover, they have conceded 23 goals in 17 matches. Should the Eagles look to avoid the drop this season, they will need to improve their form.

Team News:

Manchester City’s Claudio Bravo, Benjamin Mendy and David Silva are sidelined through injury.

Crystal Palace are without Cheikhou Kouyate, Christian Benteke and Wayne Hennessey.

Possible Lineups:

Manchester City

Formation: 4-3-3

Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Danilo; B. Silva, De Bruyne, Foden; Sterling, Agüero, Sané

Manager: Pep Guardiola

Crystal Palace

Formation: 4-4-2

Guaita; Wan-Bissaka, Kelly, Sakho, van Aanholt; McArthur, Kouyaté, Milivojević, Meyer; Townsend, Ayew

Manager: Roy Hodgson

Prediction:

Over the past two seasons, the hosts have overcome Palace at home by a score of 5-0. Whilst there have been some substantial improvements to this Palace side, it is likely City will once again look to control the tempo of this match.

Palace, on the other hand, will look to play spoilers as they travel to the Etihad on Saturday. They are currently winless on the road when traveling to Manchester, and they will look to break this curse on Matchday 18.

Nonetheless, the current forms of these two sides is incomparable. City have scored 48 goals in 17 EPL matches to Palace’s 14. Moreover, the Blues have only conceded seven goals this season. The Eagles have conceded 23.

Therefore, given these statistics, it is likely the hosts will overcome the traveling side in comfortable fashion.

Manchester City 4-0 Crystal Palace