Match preview: Man City vs. Crystal Palace

Manchester City will be hoping for a solid performance against mid-table Crystal Palace on Easter Monday to help in their pursuit of league leaders Chelsea. City coach Manuel Pellegrini is expected to welcome back Yaya Toure and James Milner from injury, while Palace will be eager to maintain their momentum and continue their good run of form.

Photo: Reuters/Carl Recine

Monday night’s clash at Selhurst Park is an important fixture for fourth-placed City who lie 1 point behind Manchester United with a game in hand. In their quest to catch Premier League leaders Chelsea, Pellegrini must overturn a Palace team who has won the last two matches.

Pellegrini is likely to see a return of Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure who missed out on City’s victory at West Brom with an Achilles injury.

Twenty-nine-year-old England midfielder James Milner is also expected to be available for the game following a knee injury which had ruled him out for England’s friendly against Italy.

For mid-table Crystal Palace, manager Alan Pardew will want to maintain the London club’s recent strong performance. In their last two matches, Palace beat Stoke City 2-1 away and QPR 3-1 at home.

Pardew, who was appointed in January, will be pushing his team to ensure they stave off any possible slip from the mid-table safe zone. As manager the former Palace player has turned his old club around from relegation candidates towards six Premier Leagues wins since taking the reins in January.

What they’re saying?

Photo: Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

We must not drop any more points. It’s easy to say, but it’s not easy to do it. We just know that now till the end of the season we must try to win all the games and we’ll see if we can do it.

They have fantastic players, when you’re talking about the level that they play at, the difference between sometimes winning and losing is marginal and the margins haven’t perhaps fell their way the way they did the year before. But don’t mistake that this is a team in decline, because I don’t think it is. It’s a team that will grow and continue to grow because they have incredible finance and incredible quality within the squad. So this period is now a chase for them, to try and chase Chelsea down and they’ll be looking to get a result at our ground.