From the side that began last Wednesday’s memorable 2-1 UEFA Champions League victory away to Real Madrid, Tijjani Reijnders comes into the starting line-up in place of Jeremy Doku.
The Belgian misses out this afternoon with an injured leg.
John Stones (thigh), Mateo Kovacic (ankle) and Rodri (hamstring) are all unavailable for selection this afternoon due to injury
Teams
CRYSTAL PALACE: Henderson, Clyne, Richards, Lacroix, Guehi (C), Mitchell, Wharton, Kamada, Sarr, Pino, Mateta
Subs: Benitez, Lerma, Nketiah, Uche, Hughes, Esse, Canvot, Sosa, Devenny
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Reijnders, Bernardo (C), Foden, Cherki, Haaland
Subs: Trafford, Ake, Marmoush, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Khusanov, Bobb, Mukasa, Lewis
Formation and tactics
Gianluigi Donnarumma will be the familiar figure in goal with the Italian shielded by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Nico O’Reilly.
Nico is again set to be entrusted with the key midfield holding role with skipper Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders also set to be deployed in the City engine room.
Erling Haaland will form the Blues’ central attacking focal point with Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki also likely to be deployed further forward.
However, as always, such is the tactical and positional flexibility of Pep’s players those formations could be subject to pre and in-game tweaking!
Festive lift off
Today’s trip to Southeast London comes at the midway point of what will be an intensive and crucial December programme.
All told, City will have played seven times across the calendar month by the time we bid farewell to 2025 with three more games to come in December after today’s assignment.
So far, Guardiola’s side have made a magnificent fist of things with successive league victories against Fulham and Sunderland then being followed by last Wednesday’s magnificent 2-1 UEFA Champions League success at Real Madrid.
There’s a sense that the Blues are really finding a sense of momentum and traction.
Pitted against a superb Palace side so impressively marshalled by manager Oliver Glasner today’s assignment promises to be one of the toughest of the season so far.
But if we can produce another winning display, it would send us into the festive period armed with an even greater sense of belief and confidence.
Park life
Selhurst Park is one of the Premier League’s great atmospheric grounds and in many ways a real throwback.
It has also garnered a deserved reputation for being one of the toughest and intimidating of venues – so it speaks volumes for City’s mindset that we have forged a tremendous record there.
Ahead of today’s game, City have been unbeaten in our last 10 Premier League trips to Selhurst Park.
It’s a hugely impressive run that has seen us collect seven wins and three draws across the decade.
You have to go way back to April 2015 for the last time the Eagles prevailed over City at home in the Premier League, a 2-1 win that was overseen by Alan Pardew.
Stats and facts
- City have lost just two of our last 20 Premier League games against Crystal Palace (W13 D5), with both defeats in that run coming at the Etihad Stadium.
- Both teams have scored at least twice in each of the last four Premier League meetings between Crystal Palace and Manchester City, with two 2-2 draws and 4-2 & 5-2 victories for City. The last top-flight fixture to have this happen more consecutively was Arsenal vs Burnley between 1959 and 1961 (5).
- Crystal Palace have opened the scoring in the opening 10 minutes in four of their last six Premier League meetings with City but have failed to go on to win any of these (D1 L3).
- Crystal Palace have won 26 points after 15 Premier League matches this season (W7 D5 L3), their best ever start to a campaign, while it’s double the total they had at this stage last season (13). Palace are the first side to have at least double the number of points from their previous campaign after 15 games since Newcastle in 2021-22 (10) and 2022-23 (30).
- City are the leading Premier League scorers this season with 35 goals, while they also lead the way for xG (30.0). We have the third best overperformance on xG in the division (5 goals), behind Tottenham (10.1) and Aston Villa (5.6).
- 17 of Crystal Palace’s last 20 Premier League wins have come when they’ve had lower than 50% possession, with 13 of those coming in 2025. The last team to have more than 13 wins with the lower share of possession in a year was Newcastle in 2022 (14).
- City have won our last three Premier League matches, scoring at least three goals in each win, last doing so in more in a row in April 2024 (4). Pep Guardiola has 149 wins while seeing City score 3+ goals and could be the third manager with 150, along with Sir Alex Ferguson (245) and Arsène Wenger (228).
- Among players to play 300+ minutes in the Premier League this season, the two players to create the most chances per 90 minutes are City duo Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki (3.4); in Cherki’s case, he also ranks first for big chances created per 90 (1.6) and expected assists per 90 (0.55), while he’s assisting a goal every 80 minutes (5 in 398 mins), the best ever ratio in a Premier League campaign.
- Palace’s Eddie Nketiah has scored 21 of his 24 Premier League goals in London (18 at home, 3 away), the highest percentage of any player to score 20 goals in the history of the competition (87.5%). His last 12 goals have been scored in the capital, the longest run by an English player since Cole Palmer between January and May 2024 (13).
City v Brentford tickets available
Tickets for City’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford on Wednesday 17 December are now available on general sale.
Having won this competition four times under Pep Guardiola and eight times in total, we have a storied history in the League Cup.
Victories over Huddersfield and Swansea have brought us to the last eight of this year’s competition, where we’ll face Keith Andrews’ side.
With a semi-final place to play for, it’s set to be an exciting night at the Etihad Stadium.
And with prices from £22.50 for adults and £5 for Under-18s, you can get your tickets now!
