Man City v Crystal Palace: Expect Big Sam to park the bus
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Played 13, won 12, scored 30, conceded six. That’s Manchester City’s recent record against Crystal Palace, making the 2/9 on Saturday’s hosts look like incredibly generous value.
But make no mistake about it, this Eagles side can take something from the Etihad.
Why? Because they’ve proved on plenty of occasions under Sam Allardyce that this kind of fixture suits them.
Last month Palace travelled to Stamford Bridge and left with three points. They also welcomed Arsenal to Selhurst Park and took three points. They went to Liverpool and (you guessed it) took three points.
In short, if any team outside of the top seven is capable of getting results against the Premier League’s high-fliers right now, it’s Big Sam’s men.
Palace had won just four games and found themselves dangerously close to the relegation zone before Allardyce took over. Had the league have started from his first day in charge, they’d be ninth in the table right now.
The visitors are 10/1 to leave the Etihad with all three points, although we reckon the value is in the 13/4 on Palace/Draw Double Chance.
Christian Benteke has been in fine form of late, netting five goals in his last seven outings. He’s 9/1 to open the scoring – and remarkably no less than nine Man City forwards are ahead of him in that market.
It’s no surprise to see Sergio Aguero as the frontrunner though at 5/2.
Despite boasting one of the most exciting front lines in the division, City have now gone three games in all competitions without winning.
That’s left them some 15 points off league leaders Chelsea, while they’ll need to go out and pick up as many points as possible to give themselves a chance of finishing on top in what we’re expecting to be a blanket finish to the season.
If it comes down to bottle, Pep Guardiola’s men have been in this position before which should stand them in good stead for the remainder of the season.
Our traders reckon they should finish the season in that leading quartet though, with 1/12 on offer for them to do exactly that.
However, they’ll need to find a way of breaking down the Crystal Palace wall this weekend to keep those odds from drifting.
Click here for a full list of Man City v Crystal Palace odds.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
