Crystal Palace vs Manchester City. The FA Cup Fourth Round.
Selhurst ParkAttendance13,979.
Saturday 28 January 2017 15:05, UK
Crystal Palace will look to get their season moving in the right direction as they host Manchester City in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday.
Sam Allardyce's men have won only one of their last 10 games in all competitions, which was at home to Bolton in the FA Cup third round.
Palace have kept just one clean sheet in their last 27 Premier League games and will undoubtedly have trouble containing free-scoring City, who scored five in the third round against West Ham.
Palace will remain without Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako.
Saturday's fixture is likely to prove too soon for both forwards, worsening manager Allardyce's options with Scott Dann and Julian Speroni also absent owing to hamstring and knee injuries respectively.
Fraizer Campbell and Steve Mandanda have returned to training but Pape Souare (broken leg) Connor Wickham and Jonathan Benteke (both knee) remain long-term absentees.
Vincent Kompany and Gabriel Jesus could start for Manchester City.
Kompany is in contention after recovering from the knee injury that has sidelined him for the past two months while striker Jesus is in line for a full debut following his £27m move from Palmeiras.
Second-choice goalkeeper Willy Caballero will play as Claudio Bravo is rested but midfielder Fernandinho is still missing as he completes a four-match ban.
This will be the fourth time Crystal Palace and Manchester City have met in the FA Cup. The Eagles won in round one in 1921, but were beaten by the Citizens in 1926 (11-4) and 4-0 in 1981.
Manchester City have progressed from 10 of their last 12 ties in the fourth round, losing only to Sheffield United in 2007/08 and Middlesbrough in 2014/15.
Palace have progressed from three of their last four FA Cup fourth-round games, ending up as runners-up last season.
City have won 11 of their last 12 meetings with Crystal Palace in all competitions, losing the other in April 2015.
Christian Benteke scored twice in the third-round replay against Bolton, as many FA Cup goals as he had in his previous 10 games in the tournament.
City's last four FA Cup matches have seen 18 goals scored at an average of 4.5 per game (13 goals for, five conceded).
Man City have alternated between a win and a defeat in each of their last six away games in all competitions. The Citizens lost last time out against Everton.
Palace do not need this game, they simply do not need this. City had a great result at West Ham in the previous round, we saw how strong they went at the London Stadium and I expect Guardiola to go strong again at Selhurst Park.
PAUL PREDICTS: 0-3 (9/1 with Sky Bet)
Crystal Palace may have home advantage but they are 5/1 to record a victory over Pep Guardiola's men, who are 1/2 to win at Selhurst Park for the second time this season. The previous meeting between the pair finished 2-1 to City with Yaya Toure netting a brace. You can back that same result at 7/1.
Jesus could make his first start for Guardiola's men and he is a 3/1 to notch first - which is the same price you can get on Sergio Aguero.
