Crystal Palace V Manchester City pre match thread

[CPFCWDTCMCBTASB]

Play like we did against WBA and we'll be looking at a 5+ win!

Palace dont lose 5-0....second best defence in the league table since november! FACT

 

[CPFCWDTCMCBTASB]

Fucking noisy, but the rags beat them 2-0 there a while back. Southampton also beat them, Norwich got a point since Pulis took over, they've won the rest.

Ta
No pushover then
2-1 to us

Palace have won their last 5 games on the bounce, and we struggled with their "long ball, parked bus" tactics at the Etihad.

That said, if we can play at high tempo (like last night against West Brom, and not like we did against Sunderland), then we should beat them.

Long Ball tactics? Direct would be fairer...we can play nice football...ok not like Barcelona...and we do put 10 men behind the ball...but we break nicley, usally along the floor...

Our performance at the Ethiad was fantastic, and i do not know how we didnt get anything out of that game! Joe Hart was man of the match that says a few things!

 

[CPFCWDTCMCBTASB]

I would surprise Pulis and have us sitting on the ege of our box and letting them come on to us, then we break and kill them on the counter.

Reverse tactics, Pulis won't know what's happening.

We would never push out! That is what we are about...10 men behind the ball, break on the floor

 

[Airbus]

Brilliant preview here from another forum:

Crystal Palace v Manchester City
Selhurst Park, South Norwood, London

Sunday 27 April 2014
Kickoff: 1610 BST

Referee: Howard Webb
Assistants : M Mullarkey & G Beswick
Fourth Official: Jonathan Moss

TV Coverage in UK: Sky Sports 1 HD (Sky 401) and Sky Sports 1 (Sky 407)
Coverage starts at 1600 BST
--

Wonder what the Scouse mafia at Premier League is up to this week? Normally they announce refs for the next weekends games on Monday afternoon (even when there is a game from previous weekend still to be played that evening, on Monday Night Football) ... and this has happened 35 times this season without fail ... but this week (matchweek 36) there is no sign of ref appointments yet. It's Tuesday 4:00pm as I type this and about 26 hours late over their normal announcement time ... of course I am worried about what they are cooking now ... maybe they are still trying to decipher Mourinho's sarcastic comments before finalizing appointments ... or maybe they are wondering if they should appoint their 'best' in Liverpool's game or ours (given ours might need to be 'managed' should they fail to 'manage' the first one).

Well, whoever gets appointed for us and for the big game before us ... I will update this thread here.
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EDIT: I guess I wasn't the only one wondering why refs weren't announced and quite a few tweets were sent to them ... they have released the refs list just in the last five minutes. We get Howard Webb and Liverpool gets Martin Atkinson.
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The Game

This will be an easy one ... well, not the game, but my intro here ... All eyes (and including ours) will be on the game that kicks off just before ours at Anfield (at 1405 BST). If Chelsea manages to beat Liverpool outright, it gives the title back to us (in terms of back in our own hands), even if they manage a draw there, that'll be 2 points lost for Liverpool and just 1 off us (theoretically at least) ... both those scenarios break their momentum, casts doubts in their own minds about being able to hold on and will surely give us a lift just before we kick-off.

So it's pretty simple really, should Chelsea win at Anfield, we'll be well up for it and go and do our business ... should Liverpool win there, our heads will drop and we'll drop points at Crystal Palace ...
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The Opposition

Whatever you call Tony Pulis and his tactics, they have worked and Crystal Palace is sitting pretty at 11th ... they have actually done too well, which is a worry. A relegation threatened side in their position (after avoiding the drop with a few games to go) then under normal circumstances relaxes a bit and slacks off ... Well, I don't expect that happening here for two reasons ... first, Tony Pulis ... second, they have a chance to finish in the top half of the table now as they are only a single point below the 10th ... what's to say that they won't go for it.

This was the team who came to Etihad when we were thrashing everyone with 5 and 6 goals and everyone expected us to thrash them 10-0 at Etihad ... instead they held us back goalless till 65 minutes (and themselves had a few chances in the meanwhile). Then an unfortunate astray header from one of their defenders went out wide to Navas whose shot back in found Dzeko (who luckily didn't fluff that particular chance) and that was all we got from that game ... a scrappy 1-0 win, and a very lucky three points.
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Form Guide

Our last five games: WDLWD
Their last five games: WWWWW
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Team Selection

Well, that form above alone should have us worried ... and now Silva has gone off injured. There is no way he'll be playing against Crystal Palace and that is a problem, especially against a side which will be defensively well organized. Yaya is expected back and (possibly) so is Navas ... although both will be returning from injuries but could still offer something different (read: better) than what we showed against Sunderland (and some parts of last night as well).

Would be interesting to see how Pellegrini sets us up. I'd go with something like this ...

Hart
Zaba - Komps - Demi - Kola
Garcia
Nasri - Yaya - Ferdy - Jovetic
Aguero

Then use Navas later on when they have tired legs or Milner to shore up the defence ...
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Score Prediction

Predicting a score here is very tricky ... as I said above, the Liverpool/Chelsea game will have a huge effect on our game here so here's a scenario of predictions:

Chelsea wins : Palace 1 - 3 City
A draw there : Palace 0 - 1 City
Liverpool wins : Palace 1 - 0 City

Typical City scenario : Chelsea wins 1-0 and we go and draw 0-0

 

[Mosssideeagle]

Do I recall mr pellegrini saying that palace played anti-football at the Etihad (and this after Joe Hart was made man of the match!) - such modesty and judgement!

Of course Palace are a championship outfit - should be a breeze for city

 

[Balti]

All depends on liv-che result - if dippers win I think we'll get a flat city performance but hoping I'm wrong. Just can't see Chelsea putting in a performance.

It may be Palace that is their banana skin (and hopefully not ours)

If we can keep up the pressure......

 

[Marvin]

Ta
No pushover then
2-1 to us

Palace have won their last 5 games on the bounce, and we struggled with their "long ball, parked bus" tactics at the Etihad.

That said, if we can play at high tempo (like last night against West Brom, and not like we did against Sunderland), then we should beat them.

Long Ball tactics? Direct would be fairer...we can play nice football...ok not like Barcelona...and we do put 10 men behind the ball...but we break nicley, usally along the floor...

Our performance at the Ethiad was fantastic, and i do not know how we didnt get anything out of that game! Joe Hart was man of the match that says a few things!

I remember that's what MOTD said but you only had a few breakaways but looked very dangerous when you did break away.

City dominated possession but didn't create many opportunities

I think you did park the bus for the most part, and then looked to break with pace and numbers.

 

[TFC]

Pullis teams will press far far more than WBA did tonight lets just hope that the team is prepared to break into a fucking sweat rather than the pedestrian stroll of the second half tonight otherwise i see a fucking huge banana skin

Hopefully - because if they press more and further up the pitch it will leave more space for our midfield and strikers to work in. I am confident that our players have the technical skills and mentality to deal with this approach. Also a hard pressing game will be physically wearing on the Palace players - expect to see more and more space for us in the second half.

(Palace Fan) Soem of you seem to understand the way Palace paly, but underestimate it...

We will not, especially against Man City who have the penetration they have, go forward. We will sit back, impeccably organised, deal with anything that goes in the box, and look to counter through Jerome, Bolasie, Puncheon and Chamackh or Ledley....

Also, we will not tire, I didnt think we would be able to, but we do not seem to lapse concentration, but when we do we have a great keeper to help us out in Julian Speroni...

I must know what your username stands for....I have a feeling there is something not very nice about Manchester City in there ;)

 

[johnson28392]

Pullis teams will press far far more than WBA did tonight lets just hope that the team is prepared to break into a fucking sweat rather than the pedestrian stroll of the second half tonight otherwise i see a fucking huge banana skin

Hopefully - because if they press more and further up the pitch it will leave more space for our midfield and strikers to work in. I am confident that our players have the technical skills and mentality to deal with this approach. Also a hard pressing game will be physically wearing on the Palace players - expect to see more and more space for us in the second half.

(Palace Fan) Soem of you seem to understand the way Palace paly, but underestimate it...

We will not, especially against Man City who have the penetration they have, go forward. We will sit back, impeccably organised, deal with anything that goes in the box, and look to counter through Jerome, Bolasie, Puncheon and Chamackh or Ledley....

Also, we will not tire, I didnt think we would be able to, but we do not seem to lapse concentration, but when we do we have a great keeper to help us out in Julian Speroni...

Don't you get tired of watching your team park the bus every week ?

 

[carlos tevez is a blue]

Why would he get bored of parking the bus? For the first time ever Palace will stay in the Premiership, not long ago they had to avoid defeat to stay in the Championship. We've parked the bus before(away to Spurs and Arsenal) parking the bus to me is when your 0-1 up and you take your striker off to bring on a meathead centre back, Palace are well organized, I like Pulis, despite his so called rant about us where he said we had spent more money than Palace and were expected to win.