This article is part of our Football Predictions series.
Crystal Palace and Manchester City meet at Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup final on Saturday.
The Eagles enter this match in great form, going unbeaten in their last five while creating six expected goals in their last two. They lost 5-2 to Manchester City in early April but did draw with them in December at Selhurst Park. Palace have never won a major trophy, so this would be an incredible accomplishment for Oliver Glasner if he's able to pull it off.
Manchester City are back in the FA Cup final looking to win it for an eighth time. They've been in the last two FA Cup finals, winning one and losing one to Manchester United last year. It's been a difficult season for Pep Guardiola, as City are still battling to finish in a Champions League spot. Yet, some silverware would make up for the disappointment of not even contending for the Premier League or Champions League.
FA Cup Final Predicted Lineups
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): GK Ederson, DR Matheus Nunes, DC Ruben Dias, DC Manuel Akanji, DL Josko Gvardiol, DMC Mateo Kovacic, DMC Bernardo Silva, AMR Omar Marmoush, AMC Kevin De Bruyne, AML Jeremy Doku, FW Erling Haaland
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): GK Dean Henderson, DC Chris Richards, DC Joachim Andersen, DC Marc Guehi, MR Daniel Munoz, MC Will Hughes, MC Jefferson Lerma, ML Tyrick Mitchell, AMC Ismaila Sarr, AMC Eberechi Eze, FW Jean-Philippe Mateta
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FA Cup Final Best Bets for Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City
Betting on Anytime Goalscorer
Manchester City have recently been playing a lot different than how they had been for most of the season.
Guardiola has been terrified of his team getting exposed in transition, so for a while they weren't making many runs in behind. However, since the addition of Nico Gonzalez in the midfield, that has allowed them to take more chances and the biggest beneficiary has been Omar Marmoush.
He's an interesting striker since he can play as a traditional No. 9 but also out wide where he can make runs. He's done most of his damage with Erling Haaland playing alongside him, which is key because Haaland returned and went 90 in the last league game against Southampton.
Since Marmoush's introduction to the squad, he's scored six goals, though he's been in a bit of goal-scoring drought recently. He's only scored twice in his last eight appearances despite creating 3.7 expected goals.
I like the value on him to see some positive regression and find the back of the net Saturday, just like he did in the previous meeting against Crystal Palace at +110.
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Betting on Player to Score or Assist
Eberechi Eze has been sensational for Crystal Palace this season.
He scored in the previous meeting against Manchester City by making a run off the back line, which is one of the many ways he can hurt them. He and Ismaila Sarr are crucial to Crystal Palace's ability to hit teams through the middle with both of them operating in the half spaces and playing balls in behind to Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Eze scored twice against Tottenham on Sunday, which has his season totals at 13 goals and 11 assists in all competitions. He's also carrying a 0.55 xG and xA per-90 minute rate, which is the highest of his career.
He leads Crystal Palace in every chance-creation metric and I love the value on him to score or have an assist in this match at +187.
Betting on Total Goals
The previous two matches between these teams have featured a ton of chances and I think something similar will happen Saturday.
It's a Cup final, so both teams will be tense, but Crystal Palace figured out early last game how to create high quality chances against Manchester City. Building up in a 3-2-5 and pushing their full-backs high and wide allowed them to have a five-on-four overload on Manchester City's last line of defense.
They got the ball out wide to Daniel Munoz, who was the free man, or have Daichi Kamada make a run into the half space and send a cross into the box. They did this numerous times and City had no answer for it.
The flip side is that Crystal Palace's box defending was incredibly poor in that 5-2 defeat. Their back line was consistently getting pulled out of position and now they will more than likely have to deal with Haaland in the box, which wasn't the case last meeting.
There has been 11 goals in the previous two meetings between these two, so I like the value on Over 2.5 goals at -138.
FA Cup Final; Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City Betting Picks
- Omar Marmoush Anytime Goalscorer (+110)
- Eberechi Eze to Score or Assist (+187)
- Over 2.5 goals (-138)
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