Man City vs Crystal Palace Odds
| Man City Odds | -600 |
| Crystal Palace Odds | +1400 |
| Draw | +700 |
| Over / Under | 2.5 -225 / +170 |
Man City look to keep pace with the top of the table when they host Crystal Palace at the Etihad.
The Cityzens are falling behind Arsenal and Liverpool in the Premier League title race after failing to win a handful of matches against the top teams in the table. Manchester City are also dealing with a handful of injuries to some of their top players, so the spot isn't the best for the defending champions.
Crystal Palace blew a lead against Liverpool in their last match at Selhurst Park. The injury crisis for Roy Hodgson has gotten dire and the starting XI that Crystal Palace will be playing on Saturday will be nothing close to full strength.
Here is my Man City vs Crystal Palace prediction.
Man City
The big talking point in this match is whether Erling Haaland plays or not. He missed the previous match against Luton Town with a foot injury and his status for this match up in the air. If Manchester City decide to be cautious with him, the downgrade at striker is pretty significant because of the opponent they are going to be facing.
Julian Alvarez is an amazing young striker, but he's largely benefited this season from the space that Haaland creates simply because of how much the defense pays attention to him. Alvarez is not a target man that you can send the ball into repeatedly, but rather he's someone that is much better either making runs off the back line or finding space in and around the box. So, since Crystal Palace are going to play a very compact passive defensive block, Alvarez is not going to be as effective as he normally is playing with Haaland.
In addition to Haaland missing this match, Jeremy Doku is going to miss this match and Jack Grealish is questionable. Those are big losses because then City will not have a game changer down the wing when they try to overload the center part of the pitch, which gets either one of those two into 1 v 1 situations. We already saw what that looked like against Aston Villa and Manchester City took two shots for the entire match.
The good news for City is their entire defense will be healthy. City have been putting up great defensive numbers once again allowing only 0.87 npxG and 8.1 shots per 90 minutes. City at the moment are playing a 3-2-4-1 with either Stones or Akanji as a defensive midfielder, so it's really hard get at them in transition when you essentially have four center backs on the pitch who can all defend in transition.
Crystal Palace
The injury list for Crystal Palace is long and it's really concerning how they are actually going to threaten Manchester City's net.
Currently, Odsonne Edouard, Eberechi Eze, Jordan Ayew, Jefferson Lerma, Cheick Doucoure and Tyrick Mitchell are all going to miss this match. Not to mention, both goalkeepers Sam Johnstone and Dean Henderson are also injured, which means Crystal Palace is going to have to go with third choice keeper Remi Matthews who has spent his entire career in the lower leagues of English football.
That means that the attack is going to be Jean-Philippe Mateta who only has a 0.27 xG per 90 minute scoring rate, Jeffrey Schlupp, who is only a 0.21 xG + xA per 90 minute attacker this season, and Will Hughes, who only has 1.1 expected assists in 10 matches played. It's also up in the air if Michael Olise is going to start this match because they have been trying to manage his minutes as he is returning from a long term injury.
The good news for Crystal Palace is they will have three of their four guys in their back line available, which will help out the new keeper. Roy Hodgson is known for his passive defensive shape, which is what they will try to do against one of the best teams in the world. The Eagles are seventh in npxG allowed this season and are allowing the sixth-fewest shots. They also are a top five team in final third to box entry conversion rate allowed, showing how effective they can be in their low block.
Man City vs Crystal Palace
Prediction
It's bleak right now for the Crystal Palace attack when they don't have any of their best players available. If Olise doesn't start then I don't even know how they are getting a shot off from open play inside Manchester City's penalty area.
Obviously the potential loss of Erling Haaland is massive top Manchester City because of his physicality and aerial ball winning ability against teams like Crystal Palace that are going to sit in a low defensive block. Not having Doku and potentially Grealish is going to be a big loss as well because now Manchester City don't have a changer out wide that can win a 1 v 1 battle with the opposing fullback to create a chance.
With both teams being incredibly limited in attack, this is a good spot to back both teams to score – no.
Pick: Both Teams to Score – No (-143 via bet365)
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