Manchester City, who are second in the Premier League standings, on week 23 are eyeing a fourth win in a row when they host Crystal Palace at Etihad on Saturday (1/18/20). Opponents faced by Pep gaurdiola’s club cannot be underestimated because Crystal Palace are unbeaten in their last four matches.
Victory is the most beautiful gift because this match coincides with the anniversary event of City Manager, Pep Guardiola. Is the fifth manager to lead a Premier League match on his birthday after Brian Horton (1995), Joe Royle (2001), Mark Hughes (2009) and Roberto Mancini (2011 & 2012). But the bad news is that none of the four previous managers have won the game when they have a birthday (Premierleague.com 1/17/20).
In this match, the City players are determined to continue their performance last week when Meanwhile there are memories of “The Eagles” Crystal Palace when they last season won 3-2 over City at Etihad and determined to repeat the achievement.
According to Premierleague.com (1/17/20), if Crystal Palace’s victory occurs, then Palace can become the third team to win against the reigning Premier League champions this season after Liverpool in 2000/01 and 2001/02 and Tottenham Hotspur in 2016/17 and 2017/18.
The historical statistics of their meeting also sided with Manchester City. Of the 19 meetings, City won 12 matches while Crystal Palace only 3 matches, the rest they played a draw.
Speaking of players, Kevin De Bruyne is a figure from Guardiola’s squad who contributed eight goals in his last eight appearances in the Premier League when City against Crystal Palace with two goals and six assists. Will this Belgian player make a real contribution again? Interesting to wait.
The latest news from injured players as released by Mancity.com (1/17/20), Pep Guardiola reports there are no new injury concerns for his players. Only two players like before, Leroy Sane injured his knee and Aymeric Laporte were the same. They are still continuing rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, they experienced positive progress and everything went well. “Yes, positive. Leroy hasn’t trained with us yet, but everything is going very well. Aymeric in the next week has joined the training.” Guardiola said as released by the club’s official website above.
The Spanish manager also respects Roy Hodgson, the Crystal Palace manager who remains enthusiastic to continue his work as a manager despite his advanced age. At the age of 74, the Crystal Palace boss is the oldest in the history of the Premier League, and Guardiola expressed his admiration for Hodgson.
In this match at Etihad there was nothing more awaited for the City squad except a victory as a birthday present given to their manager. It will be interesting for us to see whether it will be sweet or bitter present for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s squad.
