Manchester City v Crystal Palace - Live Build-Up

I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of Saul. Head on over to our Twitter feed for match details, gifs and a little winding up of opposition fans.

Enjoy the match blues.

Palace have drawn their last four matches and with 6, they have drawn the most matches in the Premier League so far. Their two defeats have been at Chelsea and Liverpool, while their only win was 3-0 over Spurs.

Will they find a way to thwart City this afternoon, or will the blues be too strong for them?

Looks like Arsenal are going up to 5th in the league. They still lead 2-0 at Leicester going into the final stages at the King Power. City also won there 1-0 in September, so how bad must United have been to lose 4-2?

Sorry, couldn’t resist a little dig.

Just 45 minutes until kick-off. Where are you watching the match from today?

There is a name that is synonymous with Manchester City and Crystal Palace. And that is Steve Coppell.

The former United winger took charge of Palace in 1984 and spent nine years at the club. He returned in 1995, but moved back to Manchester to take over as City boss in 1996. Coppell spent just 33 days at the club and presided over six games, winning two and losing three before quitting.

His reign at City is still the shortest of any manager at the club.

After some speculation, Kevin de Bruyne keeps his place in City’s starting XI. What do you think blues? Happy with that?

Team News

City make nine changes from the team defeated at West Ham in the week. Ederson returns in goal, while Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte line up in the centre of defence. Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus all return to the starting line-up, with only Kevin de Bruyne and Kyle Walker retaining their places

City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Grealish, Foden, Jesus

Subs: Steffen, Stones, Ake, Sterling, Gundogan, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Palmer

At the start of the 1991/92 season, City faced Palace in their second home game of the season. After falling behind, City rallied to lead 2-1 at half-time, before eventually winning the match 3-2 to go to of the First Division.

City’s Mark Brennan scored twice from the penalty spot to give City the three points. We could have done with him on Wednesday!

Team news in ten minutes or so. Who makes your staring line-up?

Saul Garcia takes a look at the match and gives his prediction in Bitter and Blue’s match preview here.

One of City’s six defeats came in 1987, when a fiery encounter saw Palace come back from a goal down to win 3-1 at Maine Road. After a goalless first half, the second half was packed with incidents.

Paul Lake scored for City and Paul Stewart missed a penalty. City keeper Eric Nixon was sent off at 1-0 after hitting out at Palace striker Mark Bright. Nixon, who had already been booked, had tired of Bright’s earlier antics and took matters into his own hands.

Nixon was off and centre back Steve Redmond went in goal. His first job was to pick the ball out of the net from the resulting penalty, and Palace scored another two to end City’s thirteen match unbeaten run.

If City are to go top this afternoon, they will need Newcastle to beat Chelsea and Brighton to avoid defeat at Anfield. It’s a tall order, but it’s still relatively early days.

At half-time in the lunchtime kick-off, Arsenal look rejuvenated as the lead 2-0 at Leicester City

Today’s match is City’s 33rd home game against Palace in all competitions, and the blues have lost just six in total. Click here to see our stats and facts

It’s Saturday and Manchester City welcome Crystal Palace to the Etihad Stadium. The blues kick-off at 3pm and, unable to attend the match due to illness, I’ll be here to do all the build-up before Saul takes over on Twitter for the match.

Team news should be here in less than an hour. Will Kevin de Bruyne feature following his dip in form?