Manchester City vs. Crystal Palace: Team News, Preview, Live Stream, TV Info
After their thumping win away at Sunderland in the last round, Manchester City face Crystal Palace on Wednesday in round four of this season’s League Cup.
It’s the first of four matches in a fortnight for Manuel Pellegrini’s side, with their trip to Sevilla next Tuesday sandwiched between league games at home to Norwich and at Aston Villa. It’s a testing time for the Blues.
They’re in good form, though. Their 0-0 draw with Manchester United on Sunday—their first clean sheet in nine games—extended their unbeaten run to five games and saw them return to the top of the table. Arsenal had temporarily leapfrogged City having played their match a day earlier.
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Palace arrive having lost their last two. They sit seventh in the league, seven points adrift of City.
Alan Pardew has put together a superb side, one that plays on the break and is perfectly set up to play away from home. Possession isn’t important to them—they allow the opposition the ball, look to nick it and use their pace to counter quickly.
The two teams met in the Premier League back in September, with Kelechi Iheanacho scoring the winner for City in the dying moments. City won the game 1-0, a result that maintained their 100 percent start to the season after five games.
"See the first part of Manuel Pellegrini's #cityvpalace press conference now. Watch: https://t.co/zbha2ws87f #MCFC pic.twitter.com/Pi0mi6LQPR
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) October 27, 2015"
Date: Wednesday, October 28
Kick-off: 7:45 p.m. GMT / 2:45 p.m. ET
TV Listings: n/a
Live Stream: n/a
Form Guide (last five results)
City
Manchester United 0-0 City
City 2-1 Sevilla (Champions League)
City 5-1 Bournemouth
City 6-1 Newcastle United
Borussia Monchengladbach 1-2 City (Champions League)
Palace
Leicester City 1-0 Palace
Palace 1-3 West Ham United
Palace 2-0 West Brom
Watford 0-1 Palace
Palace 4-1 Charlton (League Cup)
Predicted Formations
City
City are still without Gael Clichy, Fabian Delph, Samir Nasri, David Silva and Sergio Aguero. Fernandinho is also out through suspension after picking up his fifth booking of the season in the draw with Manchester United.
Possible starting XI (4-2-3-1): Caballero; Zabaleta, Kompany, Mangala, Kolarov; Fernando, Toure; Navas, Garcia, Sterling; Iheanacho.
""No new injury concerns for @CPFC @CapitalOne_Cup clash" says Pellegrini. Full story: https://t.co/FpWkwOBp6O pic.twitter.com/EfsFlWodiO
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) October 27, 2015"
"PELLEGRINI: "The @CapitalOne_Cup is an important competition for the club. It's a chance to play a final at Wembley in front of 90,000."
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) October 27, 2015"
Palace
Pardew is bidding to become the first manager to win a major trophy with Palace and welcomes back Dwight Gayle from a ban.
Possible starting XI (4-2-3-1): Hennessey; Mariappa, Dann, Hangeland, Kelly; Cabaye, McArthur; Sako, Puncheon, Bolasie; Campbell.
"Are you travelling to the @MCFC vs @CPFC game in #Manchester tomorrow? Please leave extra time as services are expected to be busy.
— Northern Rail (@northernrailorg) October 27, 2015"
Players to Watch
City: Kelechi Iheanacho
Iheanacho looks to have everything he needs to be a star of the future.
Young players develop at different rates, and predicting their futures is notoriously difficult, but in terms of sheer natural ability, Iheanacho appears to be set for a long and successful career at the top of the game.
The 19-year-old is yet to start for City this season, despite impressing on the club’s preseason tour. He has made six substitute appearances totalling just 42 minutes. The Palace game seems like the perfect opportunity to give him a real chance to show what he can do.
Quick feet, vision, intelligence, a wonderful touch and, perhaps most crucially at this stage of his career, supreme confidence—Iheanacho has the full package.
Palace: Yohan Cabaye
It was something of a coup when Palace signed Cabaye, a player with over 40 caps for France.
The Premier League will be enriched by further television money next summer, and clubs outside the traditional top six are already spending big. It means high-calibre players are finding their way to places previously they wouldn’t have.
Cabaye is one of them. Signed from Paris Saint-Germain for £10 million in the summer, per BBC Sport, he’s a classy, deep-lying midfielder who can kick-start attacks with his superb passing and take set pieces that cause problems.
The 29-year-old cannot be allowed time to dictate play. If he is, Palace have pace in wide areas, and he will find them. They're a very capable side on the counter, and Cabaye is key to their style of play.
Key Battle: Yaya Toure vs. James McArthur
Ideally, Pellegrini would probably want to rest Yaya Toure for this match, given he has played 13 times already this term. But with Delph inured and Fernandinho suspended, his rotation options are limited.
Toure, 32, remains a serious force. His driving runs and strength to hold off defenders make him unplayable at times.
Stopping him, therefore, is very often vital. James McArthur has been superb for Palace since moving to Selhurst Park from Wigan Athletic in 2014, and it'll be partly his responsibility to deal with Toure.
McArthur is a neat passer of the pall, who, alongside Cabaye, brings real quality to the Palace midfield.
Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2015/16 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @RobPollard_.
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