Man City V Crystal Palace - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.City striker-lightManchester City have no frontline strikers nor their captain Vincent Kompany available for the visit of Crystal Palace in the Barclays Premier League.Forwards Sergio Aguero (knee), Stevan Jovetic (hamstring) and Edin Dzeko (calf) could all be out until the new year while defender and skipper Kompany (hamstring) faces a similar lay-off.Teenage striker Jose Angel Pozo, who made his first start against Leicester last week, could get another chance or the likes of James Milner, Samir Nasri or David Silva might play in a more advanced role.Kompany suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury in his comeback match at Leicester last week while forward Dzeko hurt his calf in the warm-upThe lack of forward options could mean another opportunity for 18-year-old Pozo or a change of system to utilise a midfielder such as Milner, David Silva or Samir Nasri in an advanced position.Pellegrini said: "The strikers, the three of them are out for tomorrow
We will try to play in another way."I hope that midfielders will arrive from the second line and we will score in another way."I know that we play against a team that defend very well also so we will see what is the best solution to play without them."Victory for City by four goals or more would take the defending champions back to the top of the table ahead of current leaders Chelsea's trip to Stoke on Monday.Pellegrini said: "That is very important - not for the pressure we can put on Chelsea but it is very important to add three more points and to finish the first round of games with the most amount of points we can."We cannot drop any more points here at home because we already dropped the same number of points we did last season."But Pellegrini is not taking anything for granted, remembering a difficult home clash with Palace at the same time last year.He said: "It was a very tough game
It was just after Boxing Day
We won 1-0 and Edin Dzeko scored
I am sure tomorrow we will have a similar game that we had last year."Neil Warnock concedes he will be taking Crystal Palace to face a City side starting to fire on all cylinders - but insists his players will not simply roll over.The Eagles face reigning champions City at the Etihad Stadium in Saturday's early kick-off looking for their first win in almost a month - with the Londoners just one point clear of the relegation zone.That last victory came over Liverpool, who ran City close in the title race last season, and Warnock - who also rubbished reports linking Palace with Ashley Cole - wants his players to show what they are made of and upset the odds.Pellegrini's side are without a number of key individuals but, despite their fitness worries, Warnock knows his side have to be at their best to spring a shock."They are just hitting their form," he said."It is always difficult to go to the Etihad, they play some wonderful football but we have been playing well so we do not go there with any fear, but we realise we have got to be on top of our game to come away with anything
We know our goalkeeper and our back four have got to play well and we have got to create chances."(Sergio) Aguero is as good as anything, him and (Chelsea striker) Diego Costa are probably the best two in the Premier League
But if they wanted to give me Samir Nasri and David Silva I would take them tomorrow."I think they are as good as anybody in the country, those two, the difference between the top clubs and everyone at the bottom end is that every player in the 25 is a top international player who can play in several positions."We have got to know what we are doing and be on top of our game - we have done that well recently but we step it up another gear now
We did well at Swansea and Tottenham but now this is another challenge
We are going to the most difficult place, along with Stamford Bridge, so it is a good challenge for us."Palace also have some concerning knocks, with Marouane Chamakh definitely ruled out of the fixture, and Warnock has long-said that he is waiting for the January transfer window
Source : PA
Source: PA