Man City XI vs Crystal Palace: Confirmed team news, predicted lineup and injury latest for Premier League

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Evening Standard

·11 dicembre 2025

Man City XI vs Crystal Palace: Confirmed team news, predicted lineup and injury latest for Premier League

Rodri still unlikely to return as Pep Guardiola ponders changes after busy week

Manchester City look set to remain without Rodri as they prepare to travel to Crystal Palace in the Premier League this weekend.

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The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner has played only a minute of football in more than two months, having suffered a hamstring injury in the 1-0 win at Brentford in early October and later made only a short-lived return off the bench against Bournemouth a few weeks later.

City boss Pep Guardiola said last week that Rodri was “suffering” and “struggling” as he desperately seeks a comeback, but insisted he had to be protected and managed carefully to prevent any further issues being experienced by a player who missed most of last season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

He was not involved in either the wins over Sunderland or Real Madrid, though Guardiola insisted that he had not sustained any kind of setback and was “getting better” but still likely “weeks” away from returning.

Rodri’s midfield colleague Mateo Kovacic is also still absent with a long-term ankle injury, while defender John Stones is facing an undetermined spell on the sidelines with what was only described as a leg issue.

Guardiola named an unchanged team to the one that brushed aside Sunderland for the midweek victory at Real Madrid in the Champions League, and there is certainly an element of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it for City at the moment amid a four-match winning streak across all competitions.

However, a deep squad offers plenty of options for rotation if they want to keep things fresh at Selhurst Park and avoid placing too heavy a burden on certain players amid a hectic fixture schedule.

Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders will be among those pushing for a start against high-flying Palace in a repeat of last season’s FA Cup final, while Savinho, Omar Marmoush and Oscar Bobb are all decent alternatives in attack.

City’s back four looks settled at the moment with Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Nico O’Reilly sitting in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma, though Nathan Ake, Abdukodir Khusanov, Rico Lewis and Rayan Ait-Nouri are other options in that area.

Predicted Man City XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Silva, Gonzalez, Reijnders, Foden, Haaland, Doku

Injured: Rodri, Kovacic, Stones

Time and date: 2pm GMT on Sunday December 14, 2025

How to watch: Sky Sports