Crystal Palace vs Man City LIVE commentary: Foden in fine form as reigning champions aim to go top – kick-off time, team news and how to follow

Manchester City can go top of the Premier League if they beat Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon, live on talkSPORT.

Pep Guardiola’s side beat Aston Villa 4-1 on Wednesday night to stay close to first place.

And they now play in front of Arsenal and Liverpool this weekend, meaning they can get ahead of their rivals and pile on the pressure.

The reigning champions know what it takes to step up when it counts and they will be keen to try their luck against Palace who are winless in four.

Crystal Palace vs Man City: Foden’s masterclass

Phil Foden is having the best season of his career so far.

The 23-year-old scored his second hat-trick of the campaign against Villa and has now joined an elite group of English players.

He reached over 20 goals and 10 assists, becoming the fourth English player in Europe’s top five leagues to achieve this.

Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Ollie Watkins are the other three.

This is the first time in Foden’s career that he has posted such numbers and he is playing simply unstoppable football.

Crystal Palace will now have to find a way to stop him, but he has scored five in his last five away games for Man City, proving that will be a very difficult task.

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• Man City are unbeaten in their last eight Premier League away matches against Crystal Palace (W6 D2), since a 2-1 defeat in April 2015. They have kept six clean sheets and conceded only two goals during this series.
• Crystal Palace came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Manchester City in the reverse fixture in December. Only in 1992-93, 1994-95 and 2021-22 have they avoided defeat in both Premier League meetings with the Citizens in a season.

Crystal Palace vs Man City: What was said?

Speaking about Foden’s sublime performance in a more central role, Premier League legend Rio Ferdinand has made a plea to Gareth Southgate.

He told TNT Sports: “One thing I would say about him is why he’s always out there doing what he does, he’s never too high or too low.

“He’s very balanced in his approach to certain situations and even in the game and I would say also outside the game, off the field, I don’t think he’s ever too intimidated by situations. He doesn’t see too much situations. big for him.

“Those actions (against Aston Villa) and we’re sitting here saying: ‘for the England team, surely he has to play centrally?’

“It’s the common debate at the moment: where do you play Phil Foden to get the best out of him?

“These actions here tell you everything you need to know. Pass these clips to Gareth and say, ‘who else is doing this?'”

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• Man City have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine Premier League away matches against London sides (W5 D1 L3), although that was at Crystal Palace in March last year (1-0). Before that, they had kept a clean sheet in eight of their previous eleven visits to the capital.
• Crystal Palace have failed to score in any of their last four Premier League home games against Man City, with Luka Milivojevic in April 2019 being the last Eagles player to score against them at Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace vs Man City: team news

Palace could bring Michael Olise back into the matchday squad at Selhurst Park.

The winger would provide a major boost to the Eagles who are relying heavily on Olise and Eberchi Eze this season.

Sam Johnstone is out for the season, so Dean Henderson will start in goal while Marc Guehi, Cheick Doucoure, Matheus Franca and Rob Holding remain on the sidelines.

As for City, they rested some key players in the win against Aston Villa.

Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were given a night off as they were on the bench for a full 90 minutes.

This means they will be fresh for this clash, likely returning to the lineup in place of Jack Grealish and Julian Alvarez.

Ederson and Nathan Ake will remain injured while John Stones continues to return to full fitness and could feature as a substitute.

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• Erling Haaland has been involved in seven goals in his last six away matches for Man City in the Premier League, scoring four and assisting three. However, he has not scored in any of his last four such matches, his longest run without an away goal in the competition.
• Eberechi Eze has scored five goals in eight home games for Crystal Palace in the Premier League this season; The last Englishman to score more at home during a top-flight campaign with the Eagles was Andrew Johnson in 2004-05 (11).

Crystal Palace vs Man City: talkSPORT coverage

This Premier League clash will take place on Saturday April 6.

Kick-off at Selhurst Park is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

talkSPORT will have EXCLUSIVE live coverage of the game presented by Reshmin Chowdhury.

Comments will come from Sam Matterface and former Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew.