Manchester City v Crystal Palace – Head To Head

Manchester City take on Crystal Palace on Saturday with two missions in mind – keep the pace with Liverpool and avenge last season’s shock defeat.

When Palace arrived in Manchester last season, it was expected that City would once again put the Eagles to the sword. It would have been easy to assume this would happen as the blues had won the last nine matches in a row and were unbeaten in 13 matches against Palace. In addition, in three of the previous four matches, City had put five past the Eagles and Palace had scored once in six visits, so it was a huge surprise to everyone when the visitors walked away with a deserved three points.

Will they do it again on Saturday, or will the blues maintain their excellent start to 2020? Let’s take a look at the stats to get some clues.

Saturday’s game will be the 30^th time these two sides in Manchester, and it’s fair to say that City have the upper hand in this fixture.

The blues have won 18 home matches against the Eagles, while losing and drawing six. Over those matches, City have scored an incredible 72 goals at home against the Eagles, while Palace have scored just 30, an average of almost a goal per game.

Last December’s win was Palace’s first victory on blue soil since December 1990, which incredibly fell on exactly the same date – 22^nd December. And for those superstitious people, Palace’s previous win in Manchester came at Maine Road in 1987 when City keeper Eric Nixon was sent off and Palace won 3-1. The month? December again. That’s where the superstition ends as two of City’s remaining three defeats came in April, with one in March. In fact, the last time City played Palace at home in January, the blues ran out 4-0 winners (2016).

Palace scored three goals on their last visit, but prior to that, the Eagles managed just two in eight matches in Manchester and had lost their previous fixtures 5-0, 5-0, 4-0, 5-1 and 3-0.

City’s biggest win over Palace came in their very first meeting in Manchester. The two were paired together in the FA Cup at Maine Road and City progressed with a decent scoreline – battering the Eagles 11-4. The two would not meet in the competition until 1981 when City ran out 4-0 winners as they plotted their way to Wembley.

Palace have never won two matches in succession when playing on Manchester soil, Their six wins were followed by three wins for City and two draws. Six games have ended in draws, but only two of those have ended 0-0 – August 1979 and May 1993. The others have all ended 1-1 – there has never been a higher scoring draw than that in this fixture.

What will happen on Saturday? Will Palace make it two wins on the bounce or will City’s from carry them through? Let us know what you think.