Premier League: Crystal Palace v Man City betting preview, tips, TV channel

TV: Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event, 2.05pm Sunday

Manchester City don't have many bogey teams but Crystal Palace may be as close as it comes for the Premier League champions.

Palace defied odds of 22-1 to beat City in December's reverse fixture and also ended their run of 18 straight Premier League wins last season with a 0-0 stalemate.

It could have been even better for the Eagles at Selhurst Park, however, as Luka Milivojevic unusually missed a penalty.

So City have been warned. This is no gimme and Pep Guardiola's side will surely have to battle if they are to gain the victory which will return them to the summit before Liverpool host Chelsea.

Backing City to win in a match featuring no more than three goals could be the way to go, particularly as the strong favourites have been playing conservatively in recent weeks.

City have not covered the handicap in any of their last five Premier League encounters, accepting relatively narrow two-goal victories over Cardiff, Fulham and a makeshift Watford side, as well as 1-0 successes over West Ham and Bournemouth.

The champions would gladly take another 1-0 triumph in a tricky contest and City were happy enough to see off Brighton by that score in last week's dull FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

Guardiola proved he was concerned by this game, resting Kevin De Bruyne from the start in Tuesday's 1-0 Champions League loss at Tottenham, and refusing to risk Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva in preparation for this stiff examination.

The reasoning was simple enough.

City have another chance to stay on course for the quadruple by beating Spurs in the Champions League return leg, but a Selhurst Park defeat will hand the title initiative to Liverpool and Guardiola is not prepared to risk that given his game in hand which comes later this month is away to Manchester United.

Defensively City remain masterful. They allowed four shots on target in midweek, which was the first time in 11 matches that an opponent had more than two efforts at Ederson, and it's worth remembering Palace scored with all of their attempts on goal in the reverse game.

Palace, who accumulated just 22 per cent possession on that occasion, will once again aim to play on the counter through Wilfried Zaha and protect a weakened rearguard missing first-choice centre-backs Mamadou Sakho and James Tomkins.

It's a massive ask for replacements Scott Dann and Martin Kelly to keep tabs on a side with 83 Premier League goals this season, although leading marksman Sergio Aguero looked less than razor-sharp on his return from injury at Spurs.

Recommendation
Man City to win & under 3.5 goals
1pt 6-5 BoyleSports

Bet on this match at soccerbase.com

Premier League standings

Team news
Crystal Palace
James Tomkins has joined centre-back partner Mamadou Sakho on the sidelines. Max Meyer should return from illness.

Man City
Bernardo Silva, Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko return, leaving injured reserve keeper Claudio Bravo as the only absentee.

Key stat
Man City's last eight matches against Premier League opponents in all competitions have produced just 12 goals.

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