Michael Plant brings the latest from Pep Guardiola's press conference ahead of Manchester City's trip to Crystal Palace.
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00:00I'm at Manchester City's CFA training base where about half an hour ago Pep Guardiola
00:04held his pre-match press conference ahead of the Premier League game against Crystal
00:07Palace this weekend. Of course City go into that game on the back of finally ending their
00:11winless run in midweek with a 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest. I thought that was a really
00:16encouraging performance actually from City. I thought they played very well and certainly
00:18in possession and on the ball created plenty of attacking opportunities even if maybe a
00:23few fragilities did show in that how many chances they conceded to Forest. But overall
00:27City delighted to get back to winning ways aiming to do the same again this weekend against
00:32Palace, a side who have struggled this season but have actually done okay in the last couple
00:35of weeks. They've only actually lost one of the last six Premier League games and although
00:38they do sit just outside the relegation zone perhaps signs that Oliver Glasner's side
00:42are starting to slowly turn things around. And today in the press conference, I mean
00:46truthfully there wasn't a huge amount in the open section in the first part of the press
00:49conference. It was mainly about team news for Pep Guardiola and he did confirm that
00:53Nathan Ake won't be back. He picked up an injury against Forest last time out. Guardiola
00:58said it looked like it would be a longer one in midweek but didn't give any further update
01:01today. But he did confirm that Manuel Akanji, he also picked up an injury in that game could
01:05possibly be back to face Palace at the weekend. Phil Foden won't be though. He is suffering
01:10from bronchitis, missed the Forest game and will also not be an option at Selhurst Park
01:15along with John Stones and Matteo Coppocic, two injuries who have been going on for a
01:19couple of weeks now. We didn't expect them back but Guardiola was asked about it today
01:22anyway. And then the only other real news is he was asked about Kevin De Bruyne. Obviously
01:26the Belgian started his first match in midweek since the 18th of September. He's been struggling
01:31with a pelvis issue for a number of months now. And Guardiola is certainly easing him
01:35back in. He did say that he's not totally sure if he's able to play three days, three
01:40days, three days as he put it. So uncertain whether he'll be able to start but I suspect
01:45he'll play some part at Selhurst Park for what is a bit of a patched up Manchester City
01:48team. Looks like Jack Grealish could play in the middle again. He was asked about that
01:52today, Pep Guardiola, along with Kevin De Bruyne's future. Didn't really have a huge
01:55amount to say on that. And about Palace's form, very complimentary as you can imagine,
01:59referencing back to the end of last season when Palace were excellent. Probably not quite
02:03at those levels now but it's always been a grind that City have struggled with at Selhurst
02:07Park and have had a couple of step-ups over the years. Guardiola, we'll certainly hope
02:11that's not the case this weekend as they start to slowly try and claw back that lead that
02:15Liverpool have amassed at the top of the table.