Manchester City’s Premier League title defence is hanging in the balance after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
With the Merseyside derby postponed at lunchtime, there was the opportunity for City to close the gap on league leaders Liverpool to six points with a victory, but in the end they needed equalisers from Erling Haaland and then Rico Lewis – who was later controversially sent off – to even take a point off Palace. City now sit eight points adrift of the pacesetters in fourth.
City’s run of five away defeats in a row is over but that stat will be of little comfort to Pep Guardiola, who saw his side fail to build on the midweek win over Nottingham Forest.
Liverpool can extend their advantage over the title holders with their game in hand, while Arsenal and Chelsea, both a point ahead of City, can pull away when they play London derbies live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
Amid the cold, wind and rain in south London, City were immediately up against it when Daniel Munoz fired in Palace’s early opener after a smart pass from Will Hughes exposed the visitors’ defence. After scoring his first for the club last weekend, he now has two in two at Selhurst.
Haaland’s equaliser on the half-hour mark came just moments after Ruben Dias had made a crucial block on Jefferson Lerma’s smashed shot in the box and City’s defence had been jittery and fortunate not to be punished again when unmarked Ismaila Sarr blasted over from the edge of the box.
But with Kevin De Bruyne starting again for City, there was threat in the final third, with the Belgian playing Haaland in for a one-on-one which Dean Henderson somehow kept out with his face before Ilkay Gundogan volleyed against a post and Savinho sent the follow-up wastefully wide.
Haaland’s looping header from Matheus Nunes’ cross – keeping up his streak of always scoring against Palace in the Premier League – should have been the platform for City to go on and assert their authority but their possession was ineffective at the start of the second half and instead they were behind again when Lacroix leapt above the rooted Kyle Walker to head in Palace’s second.
There was a flash of City at their best for the second equaliser, with De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva involved to play in Lewis for a cleverly disguised finish. It was his third Premier League goal and all of them have come against Palace.
But he will not remember this one fondly. After picking up a booking for dissent, he was wrongly dismissed by ref Rob Jones when Trevoh Chalobah caught him in a collision. VAR could not get involved as it was a yellow-card call.
Down to 10, City created nothing of note in the final moments. The win over Forest gave City hope – but this was a painful reminder they have a lot of work to do to return the levels needed to mix it in this title race.
As for Palace, it’s now just one loss in eight in all competitions and things are looking up for Oliver Glasner’s side, who sit 16th, four points above the drop zone.
Merson – Why I believe Man City are out of the title race
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Paul Merson believes Manchester City are out of the title race after their 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace, saying he doesn’t give them a chance.
Paul Merson on Soccer Saturday:
“I don’t give them a chance and I don’t see them going on a 12-game run. There are too many players who are not playing anywhere near their abilities.
“I don’t see it. I might be wrong but I don’t think I will be. They haven’t got the players here to go on that run.
“I didn’t used to like watching Man City. I used to think ‘Oh they’ll just pass it, tickle the other team’s stomachs, score a couple of goals and get ready for Europe.’
“That’s not the case anymore. Teams now are now having a go at them.
“If he turns this around and wins the Premier League, it will be the best thing he’s done in management in my opinion.”
Guardiola: I’m proud of my players and we take the point
Man City boss Pep Guardiola:
“We take the point. Incredibly proud of players how we fought, come back twice, difficult conditions for both sides.
Is the problem the players are tired? No.
The red card? I didn’t see it.
“We played the last 15 minutes with 10 vs 11. We have seven potential starting XI players injured, a lot of players with minutes, the physicality from Palace is there… We did everything to try to win and [I’m] really proud and pleased for the players.
“We made two fantastic goals. In set-pieces right now every single team is stronger than us. In general the game was there. Really pleased for many things I saw.
“The season started difficult and will be difficult all season. We have to survive, every game try to take points, win games and go forward. We knew it from the beginning, we have to continue with the players at our disposal.”
Glasner: A great week for us… but it could have been more!
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner:
“We can do better. Many positive things today. Having the lead twice, it felt too passive – when City have the ball it’s just a matter of time until they create chances. Their second goal – wow. We started excellent. Overall it was a good performance a great week for us – but it could have been a little bit more.
“We have to be fair, they had big chances in the first half – Haaland and then Gundogan hitting the post. We had two or three as well. Second half was not so up and down, we lost the ball too quick in transitions, the red card helped us to get the game into the City half more but I think the result is a fair result.
“We’re still near the bottom part of the table, so keep going, working hard, stay ambitious and we go in the right direction. It’s a process we’re in and we could all see today the progress is happening. But I will never be satisfied.”
