ANALYSIS KEY ISSUES FOR BLUES

ONE PLACE DOWN IN ATTACK

KEVIN De Bruyne’s game time is managed, Bernardo Silva was undroppable for the 2018/19 season and Raheem Sterling has been the player most used by Pep Guardiola during his time at City.

The current man of the moment though is Phil Foden, with the coach explaining after Wednesday’s man-ofthe-match performance exactly why the 20-year-old was being picked ahead of his team-mates.

That is an issue for Riyad Mahrez, Ferran Torres, Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and anyone else who wants to start in City’s attack as they must compete for two places rather than three.

GOALS WIN GAMES

CITY have scored 24 goals in nine meetings with Palace, at an average of close to three per match.

That would suggest that if they can keep a clean sheet that should be enough for the victory. City have let themselves down in the past at home to Roy Hodgson’s side with bad individual mistakes, but those have been a thing of the past since Ruben Dias joined.

LIVERPOOL-UNITED SIGNIFICANT

CITY’S players and staff may say they are paying it little attention but this will be an important prelude to the Palace game.

These are the two sides most likely to stop the Blues from winning the title and each of the three possible outcomes will be interesting for the weeks ahead.

A Liverpool win will recover their image after recent slips and add to the sense that United won’t last the distance, a United win would strengthen the idea that Liverpool are struggling and anything but a United win will mean the Blues can top the table if they take maximum points from their games in hand.

STRETCH THE RUN

CITY are on a run of three successive home wins and have not achieved more than that this season. Welcoming Palace and then Villa in a few days looks an inviting way to set a new standard.