Man City need to rubbish 'fake lead' concept in Crystal Palace fixture

Away day specialists

This season Manchester City have continued one of their unexpected strengths under Pep Guardiola: mercilessly crushing opponents at their own ground. For a team unfairly reduced at times to playing mechanical football or lacking spirit when they are up against it, City have been exceptionally good away from home for ages.

Exactly half of the 100 points racked up in the Centurions season came away from home and last season they won 12 consecutive away games; both, unsurprisingly, were Premier League records. This year has picked up where that left off, with City boasting the best away form in the division and unbeaten in 13 since defeat on the opening day.

Basically, you have to have done almost everything right (see Liverpool and Southampton) or be Tottenham (see Tottenham) to take points off City in the league. As unorthodox as it may be, Crystal Palace should find it harder to beat the Blues at Selhurst Park than they did at the Etihad.

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Fake leads

Guardiola described City's six-point lead at the top of the table as 'fake' after the Manchester derby, his reasoning being that Liverpool had a game in hand. This is fair, but also ignores the fact that football isn't played in a vacuum.

However much the players may wish to shut everything else out, when Liverpool kicked off at Brighton they could not be certain that they would get the three points the City manager was assuming they would. Had they lost, the six-point gap would have been very real.

City can only win their games, but it is undeniable that Jurgen Klopp and his team will feel more pressure heading to Arsenal on Wednesday night if they know they are six