Paul Merson shares the ‘huge concern’ on the cards at Manchester City as Crystal Palace scoreline prediction made

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Manchester City are in Premier League action on Saturday as they host Crystal Palace in the day’s early kick-off.

Manchester City are currently involved in a very tight race for the Champions League spots, with the entirety of the top half of the Premier League table in the picture.

On a brighter note, England’s top five will now get Champions League football thanks to Arsenal’s surprising quarter-final first-leg win over Real Madrid.

City are currently sixth in the table on 52 points, while Crystal Palace are 11th on 43 points, though they have a game in hand on all the teams around them.

Paul Merson has now predicted how City will fare against Palace, noting there’s a “huge concern” potentially on the cards for Pep Guardiola’s side.

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Paul Merson says Manchester City cannot finish outside top four as 2-1 win over Crystal Palace predicted

Merson believes a lot of City’s players are currently low on confidence, a state of affairs which makes playing in a Guardiola setup difficult.

The pundit also said City cannot afford to finish outside the top four, saying it would be a “huge concern” for a team so dominant to then drop to sixth.

However, Merson has backed City to get the better of Palace, predicting a 2-1 win over Oliver Glasner’s charges.

“There are a lot of players in this Manchester City team who are now low on confidence,” Merson wrote on Sportskeeda.

“When you’re in that situation, playing in Pep Guardiola’s system can be difficult. We saw that during the derby against Manchester United.

“Manchester City must finish inside the top-four. They cannot go from being champions to finishing sixth, that would be a huge concern.

“This is a hard game to call because I believe Crystal Palace can cause City some problems.

“I’m backing City to win by a slender margin, but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended 1-1.

“Palace definitely have the ammunition to hurt City and I expect them to score at the Etihad.”

Manchester City v Crystal Palace team news

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has no fresh injury concerns ahead of the Palace game.

However, the Citizens are still without Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake, Erling Haaland, Rodri and John Stones.

Crystal Palace will be without Marc Guehi and Eddie Nketiah, who are suspended following their red cards against Brighton last weekend.

Defenders Maxence Lacroix and Chris Richards are available to Glasner for the game, but Chadi Riad and Cheick Doucoure remain long-term absentees.