Man City v Palace: should Benteke be dropped?

Could Sako start? – skysports.com

Manchester City were a joy to watch at Watford last week: they won 6-0 with a performance that will strike fear into the rest of the Premier League.

Midfield magicians Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva played nine key passes while Raheem Sterling completed seven successful dribbles. They had 51 touches of the ball in the opposing box and no starting outfield player failed to have at least one, such was their dominance.

They sustained that pressure by playing out from the back. Based on the heatmap for Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones (WhoScored) last week, the tip of the green section comes very close to the centre-circle, which shows how far up the pitch they play.

The challenge for Crystal Palace is to find a way of using that trend to their advantage. For the last 12 months, Christian Benteke has been a guaranteed starter but Roy Hodgson might consider his position. The Belgian was dominated by Southampton’s centre-backs last week and he will struggle even more if he’s isolated, as he will be on Saturday. He has missed two good chances in the last two games too.

Palace need a forward with both the desire to press Stones and Otamendi, stopping City from playing out and also to the pace to carry attacks single-handedly. In the midweek cup clash with Huddersfield, Hodgson experimented with Bakary Sako as a false nine and he might be tempted to give him a similar role here. They need as much pace on the pitch as possible and though Wilfried Zaha will not be back until October, Andros Townsend is capable and Ruben Loftus-Cheek looked bright last week.

The other man to impress in midweek was Mamadou Sakho, who was integral to their survival push last term and Hodgson may want to give him a first league start of this campaign. He could start Luka Milivojevic in place of Yohan Cabaye, whose marking was suspect for Southampton’s goal last week and no lapses in concentration can be afforded here.

The biggest test for Palace’s defensive unit will be to keep quiet Sergio Aguero, who has scored 39 goals for Man City since the start of last season. They will therefore need Wayne Hennessey to have a game akin to the one he had at Anfield in the second week, without an erratic error as we saw at Turf Moor.

In the second half of last season, Crystal Palace beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. As 16/1 outsiders this Saturday, they will need to embrace the underdog tag once again.

The Football Lab’s Verdict: 2-0