Key events
31 min: Yellow card for Cherki, who cynically drags back Wharton after the Palace maestro made a burst forward from midfield.
28 min: Foden is having a poor game. Two golden chances missed and the 26-year-old is getting little change out of Mitchell. Foden swaps wings with Semenyo, who is now on the right for City. I would not be surprised to see Foden hooked at half-time by Maresca, who has not been shy in shaking things up. Echeverri and McAidoo are two good wide options on the City bench.
26 min: Genius from Cherki! First he turns and releases O’Reilly down the right wing. Then, in support, Cherki picks the ball back up, skips past Tomiyasu to the byline and delivers a good cross to Foden in the middle. The Englishman simply has to nod the ball home from five yards out but fails to make a good connection, the ball padding off his shoulder and into the grateful hands of Henderson!
24 min: It’s all City now, but Maresca will be fuming at that missed Foden chance. The visitors will want to kill his game while they are on top. Momentum can be a fickle thing at Selhurst Park.
Huge miss from Foden!
22 min: City flirt with a shot on the edge of the box and Palace defenders are drawn to Haaland and Anderson as they look for an opening. But Anderson pokes a pass through to Foden, completely unmarked in the box. The ball arrives perfectly on his left foot, and Foden curls it five yards over the crossbar. A terrible miss.
20 min: Cherki is penalised for shrugging off Pino in midfield. Very harsh, the Frenchman was just stronger.
18 min: That was a little too easy for Haaland, in retrospect. Neither Tomiyasu or Richards got close or high enough to stop the big Norwegian. Does he score that goal if Lacroix is playing? Or if Guéhi was playing for the opposite team tonight?
GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City (Haaland 16)
Inevitable. A simple goal, as Semenyo delivers an inswinging cross. Haaland climbs highest and loops an inch-perfect header over Henderson and into the far corner. Haaland wheels away, wiping his brow, feigning relief after he failed to score on the opening weekend. Fear not, he always scores at Selhurst Park, six goals here in his career.
13 min: Wharton, the best player on the pitch so far by a mile, breaks the lines with a trivela pass to Strand Larsen. The guy just oozes class. Hindsight, sure, but it’s absolutely hilarious that Tuchel chose not to take him to the World Cup, instead picking Mainoo, Henderson … Chalobah.
11 min: Palace counter-attack nicely, Tomiyasu finding Strand Larsen with a nice pass out of defence, and suddenly City are exposed. Khalaili has time and space to attack City’s penalty box but the wing-back dallies on the ball, and Palace’s move fizzles out. Groans from the home crowd.
9 min: Bizarre mix-up in the Palace six-yard box as Kamada leaves the ball for Henderson, who leaves the ball for Kamada, and Foden oh-so nearly steals in to poke the ball home for City! Another lucky Palace escape.
Goalmouth scramble! Palace clear off the line!
8 min: City take the corner shot and Anderson rasps a long-range curler at goal. Henderson dives to his left, parries, but the ball falls to Haaland … Palace throw bodies in front of the ball and Strand Larsen – of all people! – clears the ball off the Palace line!
Replays show that he actually blocked the ball with his hand, the ball flying through his legs and catching his trailing wrist, but neither the referee or VAR flagged that. A lucky escape, as that was otherwise a certain goal for City.
7 min: Semenyo has his first chance to drive at Palace’s new right wing-back, Khalaili. Three Palace defenders arrive to help, they are obviously worried about Semenyo, and City win a corner.
5 min: City yet to get their foot on the ball. I don’t think Haaland has touched the ball yet.
3 min: From the resulting corner, Mitchell tidies up the loose ball, slips a through pass to Kamada. The Japanese cuts inside, unloads a shot at goal and only a heroic block from Khusanov deflects the ball behind for another Palace corner. City subject to some early pressure here as the Selhurst Park crowd roar.
2 min: Sensational first-time pass from Wharton finds Nketiah. The former Arsenal forward feints left and right as he tries to beat Dias and squeezes a shot towards Donnarumma, saved at the near post! Good start from Palace!
Peeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
We’re off at Selhurst Park, a stadium that Erling Haaland has never failed to score at. The Norwegian gives a nod to compatriot Strand Larsen as Palace get us underway.
The teams are out! Palace in their red and blue, while City are donning their black away kit, with a gold trim.
“Feels like Maresca is trying to do funky things because Guardiola used to and he’s trying to be like him. Is that harsh?” emails Joshua Keeling.
I think Maresca really, really wants Enzo Fernández and putting Guéhi in midfield was his little protest to get that deal over the line.
Very interesting. The cameras are trained on Manchester City in the warm-up and it looks like Guéhi is going to line-up in central defence, not midfield. That means Gvardiol at left-back and O’Reilly in midfield. But we’ll have to wait until kick-off to know for sure.
A worrying stat for Palace: Mateta and Sarr, two absentees tonight, scored 21 Premier League goals between them last season. Tonight’s starting XI for Palace against scored … 10 between them last season.
City might be Pep-less – which still feels weird – but they do still look formidable. Nobody won possession more times than Elliot Anderson last season (306 times). Nobody provided more assists per 90 minutes than Rayan Cherki. Both players start tonight.
Let’s dissect those teams a little.
Palace line-up in that familiar 3-4-2-1 formation, although that front three is fluid. For all Palace’s problems at centre-back, Tomiyasu, Richards and Canvot (the latter really impressed me last season) are more than dependable and Axel Disasi is on the bench.
No Ismaïla Sarr in the squad, with the Senegalese linked with Liverpool. What a disappointment that he is not playing. No Jean-Philippe Mateta, he is apparently injured, although it is well known he is trying to leave Palace. Interesting that Daniel Muñoz, reportedly subject of a £22m bid from Nottingham Forest this week, is on the bench. New £21m signing from Union Saint-Gilloise, Anan Khalaili, starts at right-wing back. At least Adam Wharton is there, Palace fans!
As mentioned, Marc Guéhi continues in defensive midfield for City, alongside Elliot Anderson. Rayan Cherki starts after his impressive cameo off the bench against Bournemouth. Ayyoub Bouaddi is on the bench but there is no Jack Grealish, which surely means that he is off: Everton and Sunderland are potential destinations.
Enzo Maresca, Manchester City manager, has been speaking to Sky about his continued use of Marc Guéhi in midfield.
After the Arsenal game [in the Community Shield], we struggled a bit in the middle of the field. This is a league where you need strong midfielders. Marc can do this job. On the ball, he is strong, off the ball he is defensively strong, he gives balance to the team. It’s good to be versatile. Bouaddi is an unbelievable player but he is 18, he is young, from France, he needs time.
Ideally we will have two players for every position. Hopefully we can get one more in, or two in. Also maybe one or two out.
The teams!
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Henderson; Tomiyasu, Richards, Canvot; Khalaili, Kamada, Wharton, Mitchell; Nketiah, Pino; Larsen.
Subs: Benitez, Munoz, Disasi, Lerma, McNeil, Zavier Gozo, Hughes, Guessand, Mingueza.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Anderson, Guehi; Foden, Cherki, Semenyo; Haaland.
Subs: Rulli, Kovacic, Ait Nouri, Vitor Reis, Echeverri, Bouaddi, McAidoo, Braithwaite, Lewis.
Referee: Andrew Madley (West Yorkshire)
That Palace’s Holmesdale Fanatics fan group are “stopping all organised activity” at Selhurst Park is particularly sad.
Here are some of the finest tifos by the Holmesdale Fanatics over the years.
Below is a tifo in memory of Maxi Jazz in May 2023, unveiled alongside Faithless lyrics from God Is a DJ that read “This is our church. This is where we heal our hurts”. Maxi died in December 2022. He was a West Norwood resident, a Palace supporter and in September 2012 he became an associate director of the club.
Below: a tifo before the Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano in May.
Below: a tifo showing Joel Ward lifting the FA Cup in August 2025, a few months after the 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley.
Below: a 2022 tifo depicting the Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition in 1851.
Below: a tifo display celebrating 100 years of Selhurst Park, in September 2024.
Below: a tifo, at the 2025 FA Cup final, depicts three Palace supporters – father Mark Wealleans and sons Nathan and Dominic – who were once seen at Old Trafford in 2011 celebrating Darren Ambrose’s sensational strike against Manchester United. After Mark died of cancer in 2017, the image became a symbol of lost loved ones for Palace fans. Nathan and Dominic were in the crowd at Wembley in 2025 and were unaware that the tifo was planned until they saw the image of themselves and their late father with their own eyes.
“I had no idea it was going to be us,” Nathan later admitted. “I thought it was going to be something to do with a player retiring this season. Then out of nowhere someone told us and then we broke down in tears as soon as we saw. It was special, it shows there’s still a real love for not just my dad, but all the loved ones who love Palace and didn’t get to see it. All of them now know we’re on the next step.”
On Thursday, the Holmesdale Fanatics released the following statement, explaining their reasons for ceasing operations:
Increasingly driven out by the sky high ticket prices, needless restrictions that are designed to strip away the dignity of supporters and relentless harassment and legal action, many young people are choosing to opt out of a game which seems determined to push them away.
We have repeatedly warned the club that likeminded fans cannot congregate at Palace in the numbers required to sustain a growing active supporter culture. The conditions are simply not there. There needs to be a drastic shift at Palace towards younger fans and a move away from a culture in which people attend the ground expecting to be entertained, towards a culture of supporters turning up to play an active role in influencing the result.
The story away from home is even more dire. In domestic away fixtures, supporters are banned from bringing materials into stadiums, coaches are regularly stopped, and fans are arrested. Away ends across the country are increasingly dominated by older fans, with the next generation failing to come through in significant numbers.
Given these conditions, we have immense pride in all the group has achieved over the past 20 years. From being at the heart of the protests that rescued the club in 2010, to securing the away ticket price cap that has saved working class people millions and supporting the club through a record breaking period, the Holmesdale Fanatics has helped write a chapter in the club’s history that many did not believe was possible.
But now is the time for us to recognise we have taken the Holmesdale Fanatics as far as it can go in the current climate. We are therefore choosing to stop all organised activity as the Holmesdale Fanatics inside the stadium. We do not take this decision lightly.
Preamble
The good news for Manchester City is that despite their woeful performance in the Community Shield, their fortunate late win over Bournemouth, the ongoing transfer uncertainty, the teething problems for Enzo Maresca and new signing Elliot Anderson, the club travel to Selhurst Park to face a Crystal Palace side in even more turmoil than themselves.
In recent years, Palace’s success has been built on their cohesion. Despite the significant departures in Michael Olise, Marc Guéhi and Eberechi Eze, Palace have won the FA Cup and a European trophy and secured strong mid-table finishes despite significant departures in Michael Olise, Marc Guéhi and Eberechi Eze. Recruitment has been excellent and the fans have never wavered, always passionately supporting their team, especially at home.
Pierre Sage, only a few weeks into the new job, is already fighting fires. Jean-Philippe Mateta is injured but wants out, as does Daniel Munoz – Nottingham Forest, now managed by Oliver Glasner, reportedly tabled a £22m bid this week for the Colombian. There is a Maxence Lacroix-shaped hole at the back and a deal for his replacement, Joel Ordonez, could be called off after complications with the Club Brugge defender’s medical. Meanwhile, Holmesdale Fanatics, Palace’s ultras group, has announced that it is disbanding. In short, it’s chaos in SE25, which will be music to City’s ears.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.