How Man City should line up vs Crystal Palace in Premier League fixture

Manchester City will wait for news on four doubtful players ahead of Monday night's trip to Crystal Palace.

With Ruben Dias definitely out, City were boosted as Joao Cancelo, Nathan Ake, Cole Palmer and Zack Steffen all returned to training this weekend. Cancelo missed the draw with Sporting last week with illness, while the other three absentees were through injury — but all four could now be in contention to face Palace.

If they are not match fit, though, Guardiola will have to go with largely the same players who faced Sporting, plus Kyle Walker who was suspended for that Champions League clash. City rested Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish for the entirety of the Sporting game, while Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden were withdrawn at half time.

ALSO READ: Man City provide injury update on four players ahead of Crystal Palace trip

City were beaten by Palace in the reverse fixture, a situation not helped by Aymeric Laporte's red card, but Guardiola will be looking to pick a side that can cope with their pace on the attack at a ground that has provided tricky for the Blues in the past.

Read how our writers think City should line up below and use the interactive widget at the bottom to pick your best starting XI:

Simon Bajkowski

Cancelo returned to training this weekend and is one of the fittest players in the squad for recovery so he should be able to return to the team for Palace. The rest of the back five picks itself.

Guardiola has said before that De Bruyne can struggle when an opponent defends very deep, and that is exactly what Palace did at the Etihad for their 2-0 win. For that reason, I'd play Ilkay Gundogan instead alongside Bernardo as those two are the best at manipulating space in tight situations.

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