Key events
“Wow! Pep leaving his three best attackers on the bench!” writes Justin Kavanagh. “He’s definitely choosing tails in that title coin-flip tonight.”
Pep Guardiola explains his team selection to Sky Sports:
There is a risk in making changes but the manager is here to take the risk. We have to take it. People may not believe me but I trust my players. In three days we have to travel to London, it’s always a long trip, while Chelsea do not have to travel. Then we immediately have to travel to Bournemouth [for next Tuesday’s game], one of the top-form teams, so everyone has to play these three games. The Premier League is so complicated. If those games were five or six days later, maybe the situation would have been different.
“Never mind who plays for Palace tonight it’s more about how; they were embarrassing at Bournemouth last week, the amount of tanking going on there was more to suited to Bovington a few miles up the road,” emails Dave Estherby.
Let’s unpack those teams.
Remarkably, it looks like Pep Guardiola is resting some of his key players for this Saturday’s FA Cup final. That is something of a shock, given the ongoing title race. There are six changes from the side that beat Brentford 3-0 on Saturday.
Josko Gvardiol makes a welcome return to the starting XI after a five-month absence. Phil Foden hasn’t started a league game since 4 March, but he comes in as well. This is Savinho’s first league start since New Year’s Day.
Palace make four changes but a couple of omissions aside, this is close to their strongest XI. Jean-Philippe Mateta makes his 199th appearance for Palace, Pino comes in for Sarr, while Lerma and Hughes replace Wharton and Kamada. It’s probably those latter two changes that weaken the visitors the most.
Team news! Haaland, Doku and Cherki on the City bench!
Manchester City (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, Gvardiol; Ait-Nouri, Bernardo (c), Foden; Semenyo, Savinho, Marmoush
Subs: Trafford, Dias, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Kovacic, Haaland, Cherki, Doku.
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Henderson (c); Richards, Lacroix, Canvot; Munoz, Lerma, Hughes, Mitchell; Johnson, Pino; Mateta.
Subs: Benitez, Sarr, Clyne, Kamada, Wharton, Strand Larsen, Riad, Devenny, Cardines.
City’s women, of course, have already been already champions of England this season. And now they have a purpose-built £10m training facility to boot.
The state of play at the top of the Premier League table, as if you need reminding. This feels like last-chance saloon for City, win or bust.
Here’s what Pep Guardiola had to say before tonight’s match.
We lost the two finals of the FA Cup because the referees didn’t do their jobs they should do, even the VAR. When this happens it is because we have to do better, not the referees or VAR.
I never trust anything since I arrived [at City] a long time ago. Always I learned you have do it better – be in a position to do it better because [if not] you blame yourself with what you have to do, because [VAR] is a flip of a coin. You have to do better and better for yourself, and that is focusing on Crystal Palace for us.”
This isn’t the only crucial match to help decide a British title race tonight. It’s an absolutely gargantuan evening in Scotland: if Hearts beat Falkirk and Celtic lose to Motherwell, the Edinburgh side will be crowned champions for the first time since 1960.
Preamble
Manchester City should win this. Should. By the time that Arsenal play Burnley on Monday, Manchester City should be just two points behind the Gunners with two games to play. Should.
Of course, things are rarely as simple as should. It wasn’t too long ago that Palace were Manchester City’s bogey team – literally any excuse to wheel out the Andros Townsend volley from 2019, a Puskas Award nominee – and Guardiola will remember last year’s FA Cup final all too well.
The smart money says that Palace’s heroics won’t be repeated here. Palace have nothing to play for in the Premier League, other than keeping form and fitness for the Conference League final later this month. That European final comes just three days after their final match of the season, against Arsenal no less, and there is plenty of scrutiny on Oliver Glasner’s team selection both in that game and this evening against City. Will Palace’s manager rest his best? Will those that play perform with the same drive and verve as is normally expected? Glasner has hinted at squad rotation: “I’m responsible for Crystal Palace and I get paid for doing the best things for Crystal Palace and not for City and not for Arsenal.”
Motivation for City, of course, is not a problem. They have everything to play for domestically, both in the Premier League and this Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea, and (that fateful 3-3 draw at Everton aside) are on a relentless run of form. Everything points to a City win and that’s exactly why we are here, in case it’s not.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
