Manchester City vs Crystal Palace 18/01/20

18 January 2020

Manchester City will go for their third straight Premier League (PL) triumph over Crystal Palace when the two teams meet at the Etihad Stadium this weekend.

The hosts have racked up five consecutive triumphs ahead of this clash, including three in the Premier League (PL), but a third successive title seems to be out of the picture, as they currently sit 14 points adrift of top-placed Liverpool. Also, the reigning champions have won each of their previous three PL home fixtures, scoring over 1.5 goals in each while keeping a clean sheet once. Even though Palace ran out 3-2 winners that last time they came to the Etihad, Pep Guardiola must be lining up another success here, with the Citizens winning six straight top-flight home H2Hs before the abovementioned loss. Importantly, five of those wins were landslide victories, with each of them seeing City score over 2.5 goals.

Meanwhile, the Eagles travel to the Etihad on a run of three consecutive stalemates, all of which have ended with the exact 1-1 scoreline. In fact, the visitors have now scored one goal or less in seven of their last eight PL fixtures, and are still the worst attacking side in the upper half of the table. Indeed, Roy Hodgson’s men have bagged a miserly average of 0.9 goals per PL match, with half of their 20 league goals coming away from home. Interestingly, three of Palace’s four away defeats have come against the clubs sitting in the upper half of the table ahead of this round, with each of them seeing the London outfit draw a blank.