Manchester City v Crystal Palace – A Look At The Opposition

Manchester City welcome Crystal Palace t the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, looking to keep up the free flowing, free scoring football that saw them sweep Aston Villa aside on Sunday.

The Eagles produced a stunning display in Manchester last season, coming back from a goal down to win the match 3-2, however City won the return at Selhurst Park to claim another three points on their way to the Premier League title. And this season, two quickfire goals from Gabriel Jesus and David Silva won the match for City, and no doubt Palace will be looking for a modicum of revenge.

What are the chances of Palace pulling off another surprise result in Manchester? Let’s take a look at their current form and see how it compares.

On the face of it, one defeats in nine Premier League matches isn’t bad going for a Palace side that currently sits in 12^th place in the Premier League table, but a deeper look at the results will show where the Eagles are struggling.

Palace have won just three of those ten games, drawing six of them and scoring just nine goals, and it doesn’t take Einstein to work out that’s an average of one goal per game. Defensively, Palace has conceded seven out if those nine games, an average of 0.7 goals per game. They have kept three clean sheets and have only failed to score once – a 0-0 draw at Watford.

Palace have won three games on their travels to date, losing and drawing four. Their last away win came on 30^th November, when they won 2-0 at Burnley. Since then, they have drawn three and lost one - a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle.

Other than Burnley, Palace have won at West Ham and Manchester United, both 2-1, however they have failed to score on five occasions away from home, and four of those ended in defeat.

Ominously for Palace, the 6-1 win over Villa isn’t the most worrying statistic for the club or their fans. The 3-2 victory last season ended a run of nine successive defeats and a winless run of thirteen matches.

Will City get back to winning ways on Saturday? Let us know what you think.