As we head into our final league game before bags are packed and passports located ahead of a flight to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup, I’m reminded of two things.
1. Last season aside, where we beat Crystal Palace both home & away in the league, The Eagles have a fairly good, recent history against us. In fact, the season before last they took 4 points from a possible 6 in our two meetings. ⚠
2. Similar, in some ways, to this season; last season we were in indifferent form heading into the World Cup break, with league record of L W W W L W D W L W W L from mid-October to mid-November.
I don’t know whether or not a lot of our players were wondering if they’d packed their toothbrush or were-perhaps questioning in their collective heads during the match whether they needed to take an extra pair of shorts…but what WAS obvious in that last “L” at home to Brentford, before they all took flight, is that we had a lot of under-performing players that afternoon and The Bees took full advantage in a deserved victory.
I know this is a very different “World Cup” to the one 12-months ago but you know what I mean – I hope our players are fully focused on the task in hand this afternoon.
v Crystal Palace
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| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog wise, was our trip to Luton Town: 9/11).
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1:
____________________Alvarez____________________
Grealish___________________________________Silva
____________________________Foden_____________
____________Kovacic____________________________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Gvardiol__________________________________Walker
_____________Ake______________Dias_____________
____________________Ederson____________________
Subs: Carson, Ortega, Gomez, Lewis, Akanji, Stones, Phillips, Nunes & Bobb.
I’m going for the exact same starting-11 as our last league outing; although if he wants to deploy that ‘occasional 3-6-1’ formation - with one of our central defenders dipping into midfield - then, presumably, our manager will have to include either John Stones or Manuel Akanji.
SO…
Ederson reclaims the gloves after not travelling to Serbia in midweek and following, apparently, him-suffering a bit of illness. Again, no questions were asked on Friday afternoon about the wellness / fitness of our Brazilian stopper but I’m assuming that he’ll be okay.
A back-4 of Josko, Nathan, Ruben & Kyle.
Rodders just in front of those.
4 midfielders / wingers ahead of the Spaniard with Mateo not quite as advanced as Jack, Phil & Bernardo.
Julian gets ‘top billing’.
Two keepers on the bench, such is our squad size, in Scott & Stefan; the latter of which performed well in midweek despite “2” showing as the "against" statistic. Rico, Manuel & John are the defenders on the side, while Kalvin, Matheus & Oscar make up ‘the 9’ as two midfielders plus a winger / forward.
Notable absences:
- Kevin De Bruyne – Continues to work in the background with the physios monitoring his progress with hopes of a January return at the latest. The latest news from our manager the other week was that our Belgium international midfielder was starting to “run” as he continues to train alone…and he is also included in our Club World Cup squad. That could just be a bit of a warm-weather holiday or some further training for the fella but we’ll see…
- Jeremy Doku – Once again, not one journalist asked Pep in the pre-match press conference about the condition of our Belgium international winger. Therefore, I’m going to presume that he’s not recovered from his muscular issue / knock. However, he does travel to Saudi with the rest of the squad.
- Erling Haaland – Highly unlikely to play any part of this fixture as he is still struggling with a stressed bone in his foot. Like Jeremy, he will be travelling to the Club World Cup.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
An alternative, for me anyway and if Pep had any doubts about those two, would be to play John instead of Mateo, if the England man is up for another starting place, and perhaps give Oscar a go on the left instead of Jack.
Result? Despite all of the warning signs I’ve put out; our visitors aren’t in good form at all at the moment but, still, we shouldn’t be complacent. One stat I will put out in their favour is that from the bottom 9 sides in the table, only Everton have a better defensive record and Pep himself mentioned yesterday afternoon how well The Eagles can defend. We might need to be patient, my fellow Blues…
As for us, that win on Wednesday night with a half-second-string side is, for me, a real ‘club boost’, which I think will resonate throughout the squad and dressing room.
We need to be careful and ‘on it’ but, for me, this is a City win.
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: Decent for mid-December. Overcast / hazy sunshine; dry and 11C is not too bad at all! There’s a fairly strong, southerly breeze blowing over the stadium which might take the edge of that forecasted temperature; so fairly-thick coats for fans are still advised but there are no conditions that will affect play.
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| Solidarity |
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