Prediction & odds for the game: Manchester City (1/7) v Crystal Palace (18/1) – ST is backing the home win

When: Sunday, 17th January @ 7.15pm K.O

Where: Etihad Stadium

Manchester City’s quest to reclaim the Premier League title continues this weekend as they prepare to host Crystal Palace at the Etihad.

Manchester City

Pep Guardiola’s men have been slowly but surely flying under the radar in recent weeks, and the boss will be happy enough with that – especially with title rivals Manchester United and Liverpool locking horns this weekend. Defensively speaking they finally seem to have gotten their house in order, and all they need to focus on now is bringing in the sort of natural striker who can put together a 20-goal season for them.

Manchester City just keep on winning, and they’re doing so in pretty much every competition they’re involved in right now. They beat Arsenal and Manchester United to keep themselves in the hunt for yet another Carabao Cup title, they beat Birmingham in the FA Cup and they’ve also had time to defeat Brighton, Newcastle and Chelsea in the league.

Crystal Palace

Roy Hodgson isn’t the most beloved manager in English football and he’ll never take on that role, but he doesn’t need to be. The popular opinion is that he’ll depart as Crystal Palace manager sooner rather than later which will open the door for a new man to take the helm and change things up at Selhurst Park. Until that point, the Eagles just need to stay in the Premier League by any means necessary.

Victories have been in short supply for Crystal Palace with their only win as of late taking place against relegation favourites Sheffield United. They did manage to pick up a point against Leicester and Arsenal, but they were also knocked out of the FA Cup by Wolves, battered by Aston Villa and completely torn apart by Liverpool who stuck seven goals past them.

Conclusion

In terms of quality these two sides couldn’t be further apart if they tried and on the pitch, we’re expecting to see that play out. It’s not often that we think a team is going to completely dominate another in the Premier League, and yet despite Palace’s point against Arsenal, we just think they aren’t going to have it in them to really push City to the limit. Therefore, we’re backing an easy enough City win that keeps their title surge going strong.

Our official prediction is going to be 3-0 Manchester City, meaning we hit the over 2.5 goals market – and we don’t think it’s going to be overwhelmingly close.

Verdict: Back the home win at odds of 1/7 and the over 2.5 goals scored at odds of 8/15 (All odds are taken from bet365).

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If you want to bet on Man City vs Crystal Palace then head on over to the betting page. Alternatively, you can check out some of the other available fixtures at the soccer predictions page as we continue through the journey of an incredibly unpredictable Premier League campaign.