Manchester City look to reclaim top-five status to start the Premier League weekend at the Etihad Stadium, but the reigning champions will have to handle an in-form Crystal Palace also seeking to improve their hopes of European football.
WATCH LIVE – Manchester City vs Crystal Palace
Sixth-place City have slipped behind Chelsea and Newcastle in the race for UEFA Champions League places, but only have to catch one of them — while holding off a host of teams behind them — as it’s been confirmed that five teams will qualify for the 2025-26 UCL through the league route.
Palace are the top team on the Premier League form table (well, tied with Liverpool) as Oliver Glasner has again led the Eagles on a red-hot late-season run up the table. Last season’s finish left them in 10th, but Palace can climb much higher and could well reach a European place.
Eleventh-place Palace have 43 points, five away from eighth and eight back of seventh. It’s going to be a tough ask — In addition to Man City, the Eagles still meet Newcastle, Arsenal, Forest, and Liverpool amongst their final fixtures.
For live updates and highlights throughout Manchester City vs Crystal Palace, check out PST’s live blog coverage below…
How to watch Manchester City vs Crystal Palace live, stream link and start time
Kick off time: 7:30am ET Saturday
Venue: Etihad Stadium — Manchester
TV Channel: USA
Streaming: Watch live on NBC.com
Manchester City team news, focus
OUT: Erling Haaland (ankle – MORE) John Stones (thigh), Rodri (torn ACL – MORE), Manuel Akanji (groin), Nathan Ake (ankle)
Crystal Palace team news, focus
OUT: Eddie Nketiah (suspension), Marc Guehi (suspension), Maxence Lacroix (head), Cheick Doucoure (knee), Chadi Riad (knee) | QUESTIONABLE: Chris Richards (calf)
Manchester City vs Crystal Palace prediction
The odds say this isn’t as close as you might think given Palace’s form, and for all of City’s perceived struggles they are 5-1-1 in their last seven matches across all competitions including two clean sheets. Ederson has been better of late and the center back pairing of Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias was quite good against United. Eberechi Eze, however, is having a world-class campaign for Palace and will join Jean-Philippe Mateta in testing the hosts. Man City 2-1 Palace.
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