Crystal Palace vs Manchester City Prediction: Is the Blue Moon starting to rise?

Manchester City finally won a game of football in midweek as they defeated Nottingham Forest 3-0 in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium. The defending champions ended a seven-game winless streak across all competitions and they will look to start building momentum.

They travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday (15:00), with the Eagles picking up a 1-0 win over Ipswich Town last time out. Read on for my Crystal Palace vs Manchester City prediction, including the latest team news and match odds.

Crystal Palace vs Manchester City Odds

Crystal Palace are 9/2 to claim their third win of the season, giving them an implied probability of 18.2%. Manchester City are priced at 3/5 to pick up the three points, having won three of their seven away games in the top flight to date. This gives them a theoretical chance of 62.5%. The draw is on offer at 16/5 (23.8%).

Both teams to score has landed in five of City's away fixtures and it is marketed at 4/6 to strike again on Saturday. Over 2.5 goals is available at 8/13, but it has been a winning selection just once at Selhurst Park this season in the league.

Man City striker Erling Haaland has 12 goals in the top flight but has failed to score in his last three outings. He is 11/4 to open the scoring in south London.

Football Odds

Team News

Crystal Palace will be able to call upon the services of midfielder Daichi Kamada at the weekend following the conclusion of his three-match ban. Oliver Glasner is likely to throw him straight back into the side but must decide whether to play him in a deep or more advanced role against the reigning champions.

The Eagles boss might be tempted to deploy him deeper if he is handed a start, because he will feel as though he needs pace in attack to counter-attack City - which is provided by Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr, who played against the Tractor Boys.

They supported match-winner Jean-Philippe Mateta, who bagged his fourth goal of the campaign. This front three is expected to remain intact for the weekend.

Matheus Franca is still out injured for the hosts, as is Adam Wharton and Chadi Riad.

For City, Pep Guardiola said "it doesn't look good" when referring to the injury defender Nathan Ake picked up against Forest. The Dutchman had just returned from an an issue that he had picked up on international duty back in September.

Manuel Akanji was brought off at half-time with what was believed to be a slight issue, but the City boss had mentioned that the Swiss international was still returning to full fitness. It remains to be seen if he will be included in the squad to face the Eagles.

Rodri remains out of action with his ACL problem, while Mateo Kovacic, Oscar Bobb and John Stone are also in the medical bay for the visitors.

Jeremy Doku, Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne all started in midweek to give City more attacking threat, which clearly had an effect. Doku and De Bruyne were on the scoresheet and the latter also teed up Bernardo Silva for the opener.

As City have ground to make up in the title race, these three are likely to keep their places in the team for the weekend, but perhaps Grealish is the most likely to be dropped, which would make Savinho the most probable replacement.

He may not have got back on the scoresheet but Haaland did get an assist against the Tricky Trees by setting up Doku for the third goal. The Norwegian will continue to lead the line for the Citizens and will be hoping to be back among the goals at Palace, having scored five in three league appearances against the Eagles.

Man City and both teams to score @ 2/1

The midweek win over Forest will have felt like a huge sigh of relief for City as they ended their winless streak. With that mountain climbed, they will feel as though they can get back to their usual selves. They will see Palace as an excellent opportunity to record a second successive win, particularly as the Eagles have only won just two games so far.

De Bruyne looks set for an integral role for the Citizens moving forward and his creativity will provide them with more dynamic methods to score goals and win matches - to which Haaland is hoping he can profit from to return to his early season form.

Having scored three in the week, while also keeping a first clean sheet since October in the league, City will head here with confidence they've not had for over a month, which I don't see boding well for Palace.

After beating Ipswich, Palace would have been looking forward to hosting a still-shaken City outfit, but it doesn't look like that will be the case on Saturday. The visitors should be able to collect another victory after seemingly getting their spark back. They will fancy themselves to pick up another clean sheet seeing as Palace have scored just four times at Selhurst Park in seven matches this term.

However, I think both teams to score is worth adding to this selection because the Eagles have proven to be a thorn in the side of Guardiola over the years, like Tottenham Hotspur.

BTTS has landed in three of the last four Premier League meetings between the two sides, including both of last season's contests.

Will Hughes to receive a card @ 12/5

I think there's value to be had in Palace midfielder Will Hughes to go into the book on Saturday because he will be lining up against a City midfield that look to have rediscovered their mojo.

This means that Palace will be expected to do a lot of chasing in the middle of the park. Hughes isn't blessed with pace, so he often has to use other methods to try and win the ball back - and they're not always clean or legal.

The former Watford man has already been shown six yellow cards this season, with the latest coming against Ipswich last time out. He's already served a one-game suspension for the first five, and he's got to be on his best behaviour to avoid a two-game ban if he reaches the 10-card threshold before the 33rd match of the campaign.

I don't think he'll make it and I think he will move one card closer to 10 this weekend. Hughes has been penalised for 18 fouls, so he is averaging 2.6 per 90 in 2024/25.

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