The international break is over and attention now shifts back to the Premier League. Manchester City haven’t put a foot wrong in their opening four fixtures but face a difficult task away at an in-form Crystal Palace side that took all three points at Stamford Bridge last time out.
Last time the two sides met at Selhurst Park the Eagles emerged victorious. What went wrong for the Blues that day and what must happen this time round to avoid the same outcome?
Monday 6th April 2015 Crystal Palace 2 – 1 Manchester City
This defeat was City’s fourth successive loss on the road and saw them drop down to fourth in the table, effectively ending any slim hopes at retaining the title. So what went wrong?
Like many sides last season that faced City, Crystal Palace sat deep within their own half allowing City to have the majority of the possession. They soaked up long periods of ineffective attacking play, suffocating the City forward line. City could only muster four shots on target despite having twenty-two overall.
Pellegrini had set up the side in, the now discarded, 4-4-2 style formation. Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko led the line, Silva and Navas operated as wide-men with Yaya Toure and Fernandinho in centre-midfield. Much of the criticism levelled against Manuel Pellegini last season came about because of his stubbornness to accept the pitfalls of this formation.
It was these same shortcomings that ultimately led to City’s demise. Their attacks were too slow and predictable. David Silva was unable to find any space and was ineffective out wide, moving infield but in doing so removing all width from City’s play.
Jason Puncheon, Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha all started that day and once a counter-attack began they attacked at a blistering pace. Glenn Murray dominated the out-of-form Vincent Kompany and Martin Demichelis, holding up the ball well and allowing his fellow attackers to move up the pitch and join him.
Palace went into the break a goal ahead after Murray tapped in from close range. City started the second half in the worst possible way by conceding again, this time from an excellent Puncheon free-kick. From that point on City never recovered, Palace had a comfortable lead and a well-drilled defence. Yaya Toure was at his sluggish worst, although he did come to life to score a stunning goal with ten minutes left to play.
Ultimately Palace held on for victory and they’ll hope to do the same this Saturday. So how can City stop this?
City will almost certainly line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation that allows for fluid, quick, unpredictable attacks that are spearheaded by the reinvigorated Sergio Aguero. Raheem Sterling adds a devastating pace that was lacked so badly last time around, he and De Bruyne (or Navas) help to stretch play and make the pitch as big as possible. This allows the best player in the league so far, David Silva, space in which to orchestrate attacks.
Palace will be without Glenn Murray who was the bane of Vincent Kompany last season but may still line up with a big front-man in Connor Wickham, who City already know much about after he scored twice at the Etihad for Sunderland in a previous encounter. But Kompany and defensive partner Eliaquim Mangala have been solid so far this season and are starting to strike-up an excellent partnership.
Key Battle: Yannick Bolasie vs. City’s right-back
It remains to be seen whether or not this will be Bacary Sagna. If he is unable to shake off the injury he picked up whilst on international duty with France then the spot may go to new boy Nicolas Otamendi. This could be real baptism of fire for the ex-Valencia man and could prove to be a real battle to watch come Saturday.
