Crystal Palace v Manchester City LIVE: Premier League team news and line-ups as Phil Foden benched

Manchester City are unbeaten at Selhurst Park in their last eight league visits with six wins and two draws. The 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium earlier this season was the third time in five meetings Palace have avoided defeat against City.

“Before Crystal Palace all the season [he] had been good,” Pep Guardiola said about Phil Foden’s performances this season, “Not just that – when we talk about that he has learned the lesson.

“So, in the 18-yard box always is dangerous with a top opponent. We saw it last night with Chelsea and [Manchester] United. There you have to be careful, as much Phil learned and everyone – learn the lesson, it’s not a problem. It happens, it’s football and life.

“People do good things and mistakes is part of that but we learn for the future to not do it again.

“I think Phil since then has been good. After [the Palace game] we travelled to Saudi Arabia and he played two really good games in the semi-final and final.

“But before always I think Phil is at a good, good level this season.”

Oliver Glasner names an unchanged Crystal Palace side from the one that suffered defeated to Bournemouth on Tuesday but the big news is that Michael Olise returns to the squad after missing seven games.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola makes four changes from Wednesday’s win over Aston Villa. Manuel Akanji, Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden drop to the bench with John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Oscar Bobb coming into the side.

Ederson starts on the bench.

Crystal Palace XI: Henderson, Munoz, Ward, Andersen, Lerma, Mitchell, Wharton, Hughes, Eze, Mateta, Ayew

Man City XI: Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol, Rodri, De Bruyne, Bobb, Alvarez, Grealish, Haaland

“We didn’t train a lot this week because it’s the third game now, but of course he [Michael Olise] has shown his individual quality in possession,” Glasner said. “His dribbling, his finishing is great.

“But he was out now for eight weeks and for the fourth time this season, so he was more in rehab than on the pitch. We will give him the time to find his best performance, to get his quality back.

“Everyone needs rhythm, everyone needs minutes, needs training. He is now starting [to get that] so I don’t expect him at the best level after eight or nine weeks of injury, but he can play 15 or 20 minutes.

“If it is still a tight game at the end, then maybe he can have one or two decisive situations to decide the game against us.”

Crystal Palace manager, Oliver Glasner has confirmed that Michael Olise will be in the Crystal Palace squad to face Manchester City but says Marc Guehi is still some weeks away from returning to full fitness.

“All the players who were in the squad in the last games are fit again,” said Glasner during his pre-match press conference, “Michael [Olise] is coming back into the squad.

“We spoke to the medical team and the advice is for 15 or 20 minutes. He is ready and it gives us one more option towards the end of the game so we are happy.

“[Marc Guehi] is not training with the team at the minute. I would say he will be at least two or three weeks.”

While speaking at Friday’s pre-match press conference Pep Guardiola claimed that Phil Foden needs to be in the conversation for this season’s many Player of the Year prizes.

“I think he is a contender, like many others,” said the Man City boss, “There are many, many players who play really, really good all season. Not just Phil.

“But I think he can be a contender, for sure, because of the numbers, consistency and the level of his game. Always he has [an] incredible work ethic.

“You see the last game he played, he was fouled, it was not given, he go down, stand up, press, recover the ball and net. Always Phil had that. From the day one, at 16/17 years old training, having an incredible dynamic and he still has it.

“But of course, football [is] defensive [and] offensive. Like I said before, your quality depends on the performance of your mates.

“How you move depends on the decisions of your mates, you have to take a decision quicker and after, smarter and always there is margin to improve.”

Pep Guardiola is unsure about whether to restore Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne to his Manchester City line-up at Crystal Palace this afternoon with Real Madrid looming on Tuesday.

The pair were unused substitutes in midweek as City stayed three points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool by brushing aside Aston Villa 4-1, with Phil Foden bagging a sensational hat-trick.

But as the visit to Palace at lunchtime on Saturday is followed by a mouthwatering trip to the Spanish capital to face Real 56 hours later in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, this season’s leading goal-scorer Haaland and key playmaker De Bruyne might be kept on ice once again this weekend.

“I don’t know yet,” Guardiola said on Friday, when asked about the prospect of Haaland and De Bruyne returning to face Palace. “Playing at 12:30pm and playing two days ago, I have to think. There are so many games.

“We play less than two and a half days after our last game. Some players recover quicker than others. A long week is completely different but a short week, you have to talk with doctors, physios and staff.”

Pep Guardiola is refusing to look beyond Manchester City’s visit to Crystal Palace despite Real Madrid looming as a Selhurst Park slip-up would leave their Premier League title hopes in tatters.

A win for City in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off will move them level on points with leaders Liverpool, who head to Old Trafford for a clash with arch-rivals Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.

Guardiola accepts a draw or defeat would all but end their aim of claiming a fourth-successive title so even the prospect of a trip to the Spanish capital on Tuesday evening will not divert his attention.

City are also defending their Champions League crown and take on Carlo Ancelotti’s side in the quarter-final first leg but Guardiola will only start thinking about the clash after facing Palace.

If hat-tricks used to be Erling Haaland’s personal domain, a rival is emerging. The Norwegian may have the largest collection of match balls at Manchester City but he had a watching brief as Phil Foden scored his second treble of 2024 and his third in 19 months.

For someone who isn’t a striker, Foden is contriving to outscore virtually all of them – if not his Norwegian teammate – and his evisceration of Aston Villa took him into previously uncharted territory. He now has 21 goals for the season, reaching 20 for the first time in his career.

And this was another victory City can attribute to their main men. It is just that it is a description with a difference now. Last season, it would have been a reference to Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne, the players with 52 goals and 29 assists respectively. This year, if the individual honours stay at the Etihad Stadium, the prizes will go not to Haaland but to Rodri or Foden.

And as Haaland and De Bruyne watched on from the bench, Rodri and Foden underlined their importance by powering City to a restorative victory. The Spaniard got them underway, consigning the rarity of a first goalless game for City in 57 attempts at the Etihad Stadium to the past. Then Foden took over, his trio banishing another statistic. City had not won a league game against a top-five team this season, until they did so in emphatic fashion against a team who outshot them 22-2 in December.

Read Richard Jolly’s full report from City’s 4-1 thrashing of Aston Villa in midweek: