Predictions v Palace – 13.05.2026

Regular readers will know that I temporarily stopped midweek blog postings a few months back due to time constraints. Well, following a hospital visit yesterday afternoon / evening for a suspected, VERY painful 😩 ear infection which turned out to be the case, I am currently housebound and full of antibiotics.

Being bored of laying in bed, I suddenly remembered that there was a game on and so thought I’d try to cobble together a piece.

v Crystal Palace

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11.

Our manager has been saying recently that due to the large number of games in such a short period of time, some rotation would be necessary. I can see some of those changes happening tonight and this is my guess.

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland(VC)_________________

 

 

__Doku______________________________Semenyo__

 

_______________________________Foden__________

__________Silva(C)_______________________________

____________________O’Reilly____________________

Ait-Nouri__________________________________Nunes

___________Guehi______________Stones___________

 

 

__________________Donnarumma__________________

Subs: Trafford, Dias, Khusanov, Rodri, Cherki, Kovacic, Reijnders, Savinho and Marmoush.

Gigi continues in goal.

I’m havin’ a back-4, occasional 3, of Rayan-A-, Marc, John and Matheus.

Nico-O- slides into deep midfield with some assistance from Bernardo and with Phil possibly being given a rare starting chance to have free attacking licence ahead of the England-Portuguese pair.

Jeremy and Antoine to continue on the wings either side of Erling up top.

James continues as reserve keeper before his Wembley outing this coming Saturday; Ruben and Abdukodir could well make the bench following injuries as back-up defenders tonight (8:00pm KO BST). Rodders may return also following his injury layoff and, if so, will likely be joined by Rayan-C-, Mateo and Tijjani as a midfield quartet, with Savinho and Omar giving us attacking wide / forward options from the side.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Rico Lewis – Not selected.

-       Josko Gvardiol – Update on 8^th May was that Josko was training and feeling good.

-       Max Alleyne – Not selected.

-       Nathan Ake – Not selected / rested.

-       Nico Gonzalez – Not selected.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

If my predicted line-up turns out to be correct, I would have concerns about Phil’s confidence / end product but on his day he’s one of the best around. John’s fragility would also come into question as a rare starter but we do have a couple of central defenders on bench in reserve so, yeah.

Result?

League safety assured, manager leaving in the summer and a Europa Conference League final booked; a game all of their players won’t want to be injured for. All things in our favour? Well, yeah, sort of but it often doesn’t work out that way, does it?

Instead, dare I say pride might come into it? A team of players who would like to say that they helped to dent / finish our title hopes? And there is also the possibility that some players might need to play / fight for their place in the final on 27^th May in front of their watching manager tonight?

One thing is for sure, we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves; not think about the opposition in that way and certainly not have one eye on this weekend’s F.A. Cup final.

Just go out, go for the win, respect the opposition in terms of what they can do to us on the counter as well as through their well documented set piece routines and take all-3 points.

I expect they will cause us issues and may well give us a right ol’ scare and take the lead. However it plays out, I’m going for us to close the gap on Arsenal to 2 points and put the pressure back on them.

It’s a City win for me – anything less and it’s adiós title.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Draw

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Wet. The sun might just pop out to say hello and goodbye just before kick off but essentially the picture is one of dark skies and rain showers. Not too warm either with a temperature of around 8C. It’s mid-May by the way… 🧥🌧️🌂🍵🥧🍺⚽

A very belated “WELL DONE”…

…to our Academy lads for winning the league title by 4 points over 2^nd place Manyoo.

P26 W19 D3 L4  F96 A39

And speaking of which, good luck tomorrow as we face the reds of Trafford in the F.A. Youth Cup final (7:00pm KO BST and on the BBC as well as TNT).

Solidarity

Spirit but same old issues resurface

I don’t think anyone would say that, certainly when it’s needed, this team of ours lacks spirit and it was that determination which saw us claw a game back from 3-1 down to earn a share of the points away from home last Bank Holiday weekend; a crazy end to the game after we dominated the first half.

However, as we’ve seen all too often both last season as well as this, at one end of the pitch mistakes cost us dearly while at the other, especially in a good first half for us, we were hitting shots high, wide, across goal or straight at the keeper and both of those cost us 3 points in the end.

Advantage Arsenal.

v Brentford

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 11/11.

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland(VC)_________________

 

 

__Doku______________________________Semenyo__

 

__________Silva(C)_______________Cherki__________

 

____________________Gonzalez___________________

O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes

___________Guehi_____________Khusanov_________

 

 

__________________Donnarumma__________________

Subs: Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Ake, Stones, Kovacic, Foden, Reijnders, Savinho and Marmoush.

Gigi in goal.

A back-4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Marc, Abdukodir and Matheus.

Nico-G- should keep his defensive midfield starting place for now at least.

In this unchanged 11 that I’m suggesting, ahead of the Spaniard is likely to consist of Jeremy, Bernardo, Rayan-C- and Antoine.

Erling up front.

James is reserve keeper; Rayan-A-, Nathan and John make up three defenders on the side. Mateo, Phil, Tijjani are a trio of midfielders in ‘the 9’, while Savinho and Omar continue to provide wide / forward options for us on the bench.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Rico Lewis – Not selected.

-       Josko Gvardiol – Update on 8^th May was that Josko was training and feeling good. 👍 It’s been a long recovery journey for the 24-year-old Croatian.

-       Max Alleyne – Not selected.

-       Ruben Dias – On the same day, the boss also suggested that Ruben was close to a return.

-       Rodri – During the same pre-match press conference, Pep said that they would further assess Rodders later that afternoon and he could, therefore, make the bench this evening (5:30pm KO BST).

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep.

Result?

I said in my last piece that two games in particular, of our remaining fixtures, concerned me. We’ve played one and after throwing away a 0-1 away lead to trail 3-1, we somehow managed to salvage a draw. The other ‘danger game’ for me is Bournemouth away.

All that being said, this is a real tough one too today, I don’t think any Blue would disagree. I will likely speak more about The Bees in one of my regular close season postings but to put it mildly, they’ve shocked many this season, myself included. As I say, more on that in June / July.

For now, they’re a really hard team to beat and their strong showing in the Premier League sees them currenting sitting in the Europa Conference League place (7^th); just 1 point from a Europa League spot and just 7 points from a Champions League position before weekend games commence.

Following FIVE successive league draws, they were apparently undeserved of their 2-1 away defeat to Manyoo but went on to rectify that with an impressive 3-0 home win against relegation threatened West Ham.

Not wishing to focus on one player simply because of their tremendous team spirit and work ethic; Igor Thiago is not only their top goalscorer but is second only to Erling Haaland in the league with just 3-less goals than the Norwegian.

As for us, I do believe that we’ll shake off last Monday’s weird second half period wobble but we’ve got to be far more clinical when we get the ball in the final third…PLUS be as sharp as a pin in readiness for Brentford’s inevitable counter attacks. In short, we need to outwork the workhorse side whilst adding some craft and class when it’s needed most.

This isn’t a game for shrinking violets and when I look at some of the players on our bench and the lack of form they’ve been in this season, I’m largely looking at the starting 11 to get most of the job done today. Prove me wrong Phil, Tijjani, Savinho and Omar.

Hard game indeed but I’m going for us to prevail. It’s a home win for me – anything less would be a disaster in terms of keeping our title hopes alive.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Sunshine and showers and possibly some heavy, thundery downpours is the story. Bit of a north easterly breeze too and a temperature of around 12C. Pitch should be nicely watered by nature throughout the day, just as Pep likes it. 🌦️🌂🥧🍺⚽

CHAMPIONS!

City team celebrating after watching Brighton vs Arsenal

Congratulations to our women’s team who won the WSL with one game to go. We won the league over an Arsenal side who had 3 games in hand towards the end of the season but only managed to draw the first one; meaning that we won the league last Wednesday night without even kicking a ball.

P21 (of 22), W17, D1, L3. F58, A18.

Solidarity