Pep Guardiola
Guardiola wants to lead his side to the top four. Getty Images

Manchester City host Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday, 6 May, as the Citizens look to go on a winning run in order to secure Champions League football.

Where to Watch Live

Kick-off is set for 12:30pm BST. Live coverage of the game will be on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1 HD.

Overview

Pep Guardiola has gone through a chastening lesson in England, where he has struggled to make a mark like he did in Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Of the 34 games they have played this season, they have managed 19 wins, nine draws and six losses, which has helped them to accrue a total of 66 points, currently fourth in the table.

Top scorer Sergio Aguero has been ruled out of the fixture after picking up a groin injury against Middlesbrough, which should allow the Spaniard to put Gabriel Jesus back through the middle. Claudio Bravo is out for the season with a calf problem he picked earlier last month. John Stones is not available while David Silva is also a major doubt with a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, Palace have a host of injuries to worry about, with Andros Townsend the latest casualty after he experienced discomfort in his Achilles while training with the first team on Friday. Palace will also be without a host of key players in the form of Mamadou Sakho, Scott Dann, James Tomkins and Yohan Cabaye.

Sam Allardyce has shown that his team is drilled well against the top sides, winning against the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in recent times. The Eagles have been better away from home this season with their counter attacking football, allowing the likes of Townsend and Wilfried Zaha to bomb forward with disregard.

What Managers Say

Pep Guardiola: "Aguero is out. Hopefully he'll be back for Leicester. Silva is still not perfect. Yesterday [Thursday] was his first training session. Stones and Bravo are out. Claudio until next season and John will maybe return in the next games. I know how tough is Crystal Palace. They won against Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leicester - the last champions - West Brom, Tony Pulis is always complicated. But it's in our hands and we are able to take a step forward to qualify [for the Champions League], if we win all three games we will be in Champions League maybe third position so it depends on us. Our home games was not perfect [this season] so we have to change it and after three games we want to play in Europe next season." (via Four Four Two)

Sam Allardyce: "We were so deep in the mire before, look how much it has taken to get out of it, and we're still not safe. It's an achievement to get to where we are, but there's only one goal, the goal is to stay safe in the Premier League so we can build next season. We can't have the devastation of being relegated. It's a massive task to deal with that today and fight to come back. Relegation hasn't been a part of my vocabulary since I took over Notts County all those years ago. Since then we've always been on the up, always looked up, at every club we've been at and I've been at. I hope it'll be the same for Crystal Palace at the end of the season." (via Sky Sports)

Betting Odds (betfair)

  • Manchester City win: 2/7
  • Draw: 11/2
  • Crystal Palace: 11

Team News

Manchester City

Possible XI: Caballero; Navas, Stones, Kompany, Kolarov; Toure, Fernandinho; Sane, De Bruyne, Sterling; Jesus

Crystal Palace

Possible XI: Hennessey; Ward, Kelly, Delaney, Van Aanholt; Cabaye, Milivojevic, Puncheon; Zaha, Benteke, Townsend

Manchester City FC Premier League Crystal Palace FC