Win at all costs – Manchester City head into tonight’s clash at the Etihad knowing that anything less than three points could be catastrophic for their title chances.
Following Arsenal’s relentless form, Pep Guardiola’s side must maintain their unbeaten home record and keep the heat on the Gunners.
Crystal Palace arrive in Manchester with a reputation for upsetting the big boys, having scored at least twice in six of their last seven visits to the Etihad. While Erling Haaland can boast eight career goals against them, Pep will be demanding a clean sheet tonight to avoid another slip-up in this tense title fight.
Two more Arsenal wins, from their home fixture against Burnley and the final-day trip to Crystal Palace, would be enough to end a 22-year wait for the Premier League title.
A win for City would at least ramp up the pressure on Mikel Arteta’s pretenders. Here’s how the sides line up.
Manchester City team news
Erling Haaland is only on the bench for City. Pep Guardiola appears to have gone with a back three to match up with Palace. Nico O’Reilly and Rayan Cherki also miss out in a surprising XI.
In total there are six changes from the team which faced Brentford as Josko Gvardiol, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Phil Foden and Savinho come in.
City XI: Donnarumma; Matheus Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, Gvardiol, Aït-Nouri; Bernardo Silva, Semenyo, Foden, Savinho; Marmoush.
Crystal Palace team news
Jean-Philippe Mateta starts up front. Mateta has 49 Premier League goals, and could be just the second Crystal Palace to reach 50 after Wilfried Zaha (68).
There are four changes to the Palace side which faced Everton. Jefferson Lerma, Will Hughes, Mateta, and Yeremy Pino come in for Ismaïla Sarr, Adam Wharton, Daichi Kamada, and Jørgen Strand Larsen.
Palace XI: Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Canvot; Muñoz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell; Yeremy Pino, Johnson; Mateta.
Where to watch Manchester City vs Crystal Palace: Tv channel, online stream
The match will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports.
Kick-off is scheduled for 8:00pm BST on Wednesday at the Etihad Stadium.
The stats for Manchester City vs Crystal Palace
- Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 16 Premier League home matches
- City have scored 2+ goals in 14 of their last 16 league games at the Etihad
- Crystal Palace have scored at least twice in six of their last seven away league games against City
- Erling Haaland has scored eight Premier League goals against Palace
- Palace have lost six of their last nine Premier League away matches
