Manchester City v Palace

Etihad Stadium, Saturday 3.00pm

Martin Kelly

Team news

Crystal Palace talisman Wilfried Zaha returns to the starting line-up after serving a one-game ban after collecting five bookings.

Centre half Martin Kelly sustained an abductor muscle injury against Leicester City and won't play, but James Tomkins is back from suspension.

Cheikhou Kouyate came off injured in the second half against the Foxes and will his fitness will be assessed.

Vicente Guaita keeps his place in goal with Wayne Hennessey still missing with a back problem.

Manchester City defender Danilo is available, however David Silva, Claudio Bravo, Vincent Kompany and Benjamin Mendy are all still sidelined.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"[City are] playing so well. Everyone is heaping praise upon them and rightly so because whenever I watch them play I'm always unbelievably impressed. Not just with their attacking play but also with the quality of their defending.

"If you want to get a result I would say the best or simplest way of doing so is to score goals. At least that would nullify perhaps some of the goals they've scored.

"If you don't then it's going to be a very hard task to go up there and play for a 0-0 largely because they have so much attacking talent and so much wealth of talent.

"The bench behind the first XI and you're a little bit taken aback by the quality of the starting XI and then you look behind and see what other options Pep has and you start to think this is going to be a tough and long afternoon."

Andy Newton's stat pack

– Last season’s repeat fixture ended, Man City 5-0 Palace

– The last 2 repeat league fixtures ended, Man City 5-0 Palace

– Man City took 4 points off Palace last season in the league

– Palace have scored just 2 goals in their last 8 games vs Man City

– 8 of the last 10 head-to-heads went OVER 2.5 GOALS

– Both teams DIDN’T score in 5 of the last 6 head-to-heads

– Man City have won the last 5 repeat fixtures ‘to nil’

– Palace have NEVER beaten Man City away in the Premier League (8 games)

– Palace last beat Man City away in the league in 1990 (13 games ago)

– Just 1 DRAW in the last 17 head-to-heads

– Raheem Sterling (Man City) scored a brace in this fixture last season

For all the Premier League head-to-head stats, visit Juice Storm.

Manchester City - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
2nd	17	14	2	1	44

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
31/12/2017	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 0	Manchester City
23/09/2017	League	Manchester City	5 - 0	Crystal Palace
06/05/2017	League	Manchester City	5 - 0	Crystal Palace
28/01/2017	FA Cup	Crystal Palace	0 - 3	Manchester City
19/11/2016	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 2	Manchester City

All time results

Last meeting

Palace 0-0 Manchester City

Sunday December 31 2017

Palace: Hennessey, Fosu-Mensah, van Aanholt, Tomkins, Dann (Kelly, 20), Cabaye (Puncheon, 75 (Lee, 89)), Riedewald, Zaha, Milivojevic, Benteke, A Townsend

Subs not used: Delaney, Souare, Speroni, Kaikai

Bookings: van Aanholt, Dann, Cabaye, Kelly, Puncheon

Manchester City: Ederson, Mangala, Otamendi, Walker, Danilo, Gundogan (Sterling, 57), De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Silva (Toure, 81), L Sane, Gabriel Jesus (S Aguero, 23)

Subs not used: Adarabioyo, Bravo, Stones, Zinchenko

Bookings: Sane, Fernandinho, Toure, Aguero