Game Week 2 Predictions: Manchester City to beat Crystal Palace

Palace vs Man City preview: Maresca’s City visit Selhurst as depleted Eagles look to upset the title chasers.

Crystal Palace can kickstart their season with a shock result at Selhurst Park against Manchester City. The Cityzens know they cannot concede an advantage to other teams early on. Where will this one swing? (Photo credit: Opta)

 Crystal Palace vs Manchester City

Selhurst Park

8:00 pm

It's game week 2 of the English Premier League. It's Crystal Palace at home against Manchester City. It's a game between two teams with different ambitions.

It's time to start getting used to the predictions column again; we're so back! Last weekend provided us with valuable insights. Now, it's time to determine whether some of those results were flukes or if certain teams are genuinely serious about their performance this season. These two teams under the lights tonight have questions to answer.

Let's start with the home side, shall we? Crystal Palace is the favorite to be relegated this season, and here's why. Beyond losing Oliver Glasner, the Eagles might be losing their winger Ismaila Sarr, and their striker, Jean-Philippe Mateta, too.

The 2-0 loss at Everton last weekend can't define Crystal Palace's season, but getting depleted without a strong influx of new players will make it hard. The fact that they're in Europe doesn't make it easier either.

For Manchester City, their 2-1 win over Bournemouth was not a vintage performance, but it was a result that got them over the line. The last thing you want to do at the early stages of the new season is to fall behind. They must build on last weekend's result to ensure they stay in the mix.

Bournemouth took the game to Manchester City, and a few lapses from the Cherries let the Cityzens back in. Crystal Palace is not in a good place; it should be a better outing for Enzo Maresca's side on Friday night.

Manchester City confirmed the signing of Ayyoub Bouaddi from Lille and are expected to bring in Enzo Fernandez from Chelsea to shore things up in the midfield. The absence of Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders, and Bernardo Silva created a huge void; City must bring in more players to fill that void.

The Palace game isn't expected to be a huge test for City, but Pierre Sage knows he needs results to stay in the league. It's early days, but the Portuguese is one of the favorites to get fired first. This makes the fixture at Selhurst a little tricky for Manchester City.

Erling Haaland has returned with bags of goals in August; blanking against Bournemouth was a rude anomaly. We expect him to return to goal-scoring form against the Eagles. No Jeremy Doku, no Omar Marmoush after the Egyptian completed a move to Tottenham, Phil Foden and Antoine Semenyo are the guys we expect to support Haaland upfront.

It's left to be seen if Mateta and Sarr will feature, but Crystal Palace must bring in quality before the window closes. This game is Manchester City's to lose, but do the Eagles have any upset in them to offer us?

Verdict: Straight win Manchester City.