Manchester City have not had to wonder who the manager is in ten years. Now they do. Enzo Maresca is in charge, Pep Guardiola is gone, and every result gets measured against a decade of near total dominance before a ball is even kicked at Selhurst Park. City away to Crystal Palace should be a formality on paper. It is not being watched that way.
The surrounding noise is doing the work here. A rough Community Shield outing already has parts of the fanbase bracing for a transition season, and a trip to Palace, a team that has made life uncomfortable for bigger sides before, is exactly the kind of fixture where that anxiety either fades or grows. Nobody is predicting a City collapse. But nobody is assuming the Guardiola-era math still applies either.
So the question in front of you is not really about Palace at all. It is about whether Maresca's City look like City from the opening weeks, or whether this is the start of something slower. Manchester City to beat Crystal Palace: yes or no.