Patrick Vieira wants a repeat of Crystal Palace's performance at the Etihad earlier in the season as he looks to complete the double over Manchester City.
Palace welcome City to Selhurst Park on Monday having inflicted a damaging 2-0 defeat on the Blues in October, and Vieira has overseen plenty of improvement in his first season with the Eagles. Palace sit a respectable 10th in the Premier League and have lost just one of their last eight in all competitions since a home reverse to Liverpool.
Vieira wants his side to stay grounded despite their good run, and remember to keep tight at the back and take chances in attack when they face City.
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“We will face, I believe, one of the best teams in Europe," he said. “When you play a team like City you have to be nine or 10 out of 10 because of the quality of the team. Of course, you have some moments that have to go in your favour. You have to force those moments, do what it takes to allow ourselves to win.
“When defending we can’t afford to make mistakes because of the quality of the players they have around – we’ll get punished straight away.”
Revealing his approach against City, which will draw on the blueprint they used in the reverse fixture, Vieira said: “The game we had at the Etihad was a good collective game and we’ll need to create this kind of performance again.
"We’ll have to be solid, work well and it’s about defending well as a team and at the same time creating those moments to create chances and score goals. We know we are capable of doing that.
“It is the way we work as a team. I think from the front players to the goalkeeper we were really tight and compact and didn’t give City a lot of space. This is a team that manages to score goals and create chances.
"We’ll have to be at our best and defend well but we have to create chances and it’s important to take them.”
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