Our reporter Michael Plant feels Manchester City will earn a relatively comfortable victory against an out-of-form Crystal Palace side on Saturday.
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00:00 Manchester City returned to Premier League action on Saturday and they host Crystal Palace
00:05 following the midweek European game against Red Star Belgrade. I am recording this video
00:11 before that game so not aware of the result at this stage but I'm fully expecting Pep
00:15 Guardiola to rest and rotate his squad in the midst of what's going to be a really busy
00:20 run of fixtures for Manchester City. Aside who are currently fourth in the division,
00:24 not a position they're used to being in and have found things difficult in the league
00:28 of late, of course went on that four game winless run in the division, ended that with
00:33 a win against Luton last week and while I thought they played well in certain aspects,
00:37 certainly weren't at their best and in general recently haven't been at their best so Guardiola
00:42 will hope to get back to a strong home performance against Palace. Aside who actually have caused
00:49 Guardiola plenty of issues over the years, they famously ended their winning run in the
00:55 100 point season under Guardiola, they very famously and Andros Townsend inspired Palace
01:02 beat City the following season and two years ago City failed to beat Palace at all in the
01:09 Premier League losing at home and drawn at Selhurst Park as they did go on to win the
01:13 title so they've been a side that have caused them plenty of issues. Even last year at the
01:16 Vieri had they were 2-0 down at half time to Patrick Vieira's side and ended up coming
01:21 back to win 4-2 in the second half and look I think City though will make a relative ease
01:27 of this game because Palace are really struggling at the moment, lost four of their last five,
01:31 dropped two, I think it's 15th in the table, still a real gap between them and the bottom
01:35 three because the bottom three sides are really struggling at the moment but you know Palace
01:42 aren't one of the division's top sides at the moment you have to say and City although
01:47 they have had this blip recently have been in general in 2023 magnificent at home and
01:52 look I think it will be before I think City will ultimately come away with a hard-earned
01:56 three points in that game. It is of course their last Premier League game before they
02:00 jet off for the Club World Cup so if they were to have a bad result potentially then
02:05 it would leave them in a difficult position as well because they are obviously going to
02:08 miss a round of games that match against Brentford which is scheduled for the weekend of the
02:12 23rd of December as a result of the Club World Cup has had to be rescheduled I have a feeling
02:17 that will be moved to sometime in January to be honest just given that it's a slightly
02:21 light lighter fixture schedule then but that's why it's quite important for City as I say
02:26 to get a win against Palace they also could potentially be without Erling Haaland he didn't
02:33 travel to Belgrade in midweek missed the Luton game due to a foot injury so it's not clear
02:38 if he's going to be involved or not Guardiola said in his press conference ahead of the
02:41 Red Star game that Haaland will be back in training on Thursday so obviously we'll have
02:46 to monitor that one and he if he is available again it would be a huge boost but I do wonder
02:52 whether perhaps Guardiola will give him a little bit of time as I say this is Palace
02:57 it's not like a Liverpool or an Arsenal I do wonder whether they'll be given a little
03:00 bit of time to be eased back into the game and Ederson also didn't play in Belgrade and
03:06 missed it due to illness and Jeremy Doak who's missed the last couple of matches with an
03:09 injury so they're not we're not certain if they're going to be involved as well and also
03:13 Kevin de Bruyne of course it's still a long-term injury he's not going to be involved but as
03:17 I say expecting a strong Manchester City performance to end the Premier League campaign before
03:24 they jet off to Saudi Arabia and we'll just have to see in terms of the injuries who is
03:28 involved for the Premier League champions.