Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester City
by Gene Sylvester
at Selhust Park

WITH the title race hotting up, Manchester City’s title defence was given a severe examination by Patrick Vera’s Crystal Palace in south London.

With Liverpool hot on their heels, the Citizens needed a win here to maintain some breathing space between them and the challengers, but Viera’s men pulled out a heroic performance to hold the league leaders to a 0-0 draw under the Sehurst Park lights.

“We had to run a lot today because of the technical quality of the opposition,” said a beaming Patrick Viera after the game.

“We defended well as a team, and I was pleased with our performance today.”

“Pleased” was possibly a bit of an understatement from the Palace boss who became the first manager to keep two clean sheets against Pep Guardiola’s City in the league this season.

The first 15 minutes of this game were played at a relentless pace, with the away side inevitably bossing possession during the opening exchanges, but Palace made sure that the league leaders didn’t have it all their own way.

Despite Guardiola’s men dominating the possession stats, it was the home side who had the first real opportunity to break the deadlock when Connor Gallagher dispossessed Aymeric Laporte on the halfway line.

The Chelsea loanee had a clear run on goal, but unselfishly played in Wilfried Zaha, who was in acres of space. But the pass was loose and forced Zaha wide, with the Palace man only able to find the side netting with his cross-come-shot effort.

Three minutes later, it was Zaha catching Kyle Walker in possession and releasing Jean-Philippe Mateta who in turn found Michaela Olise, whose shot from the right-hand corner of the penalty box drifted wide of the far upright.

A minute later it was City’s turn to threaten with Kevin De Bruyne firing in a shot from 20 yards that Vicente Guaita couldn’t hold onto.

Bernardo Silva was quickest to the loose ball, with it seeming nailed on that the Portuguese would round the grounded keeper and slot home. But his touch was too heavy, and the ball ran out for a goal kick.

Mateta was next up to threaten for the home side, finding himself one on one with John Stones. The impressive striker threw a few stepovers before unleashing a shot from an acute angle which was deflected for a corner off a Manchester City defender.

This tug-of-war match then swung back into City’s favour as they created a host of chances before half-time, with De Bruyne testing Guiata from close range with an outside of the boot volleyed effort and Joao Cancelo striking the post with a venomous 30-yard strike.

City predictably turned up the heat in the second half, with De Bruyne striking the post in the 56th minute after being fed in the six-yard box by a cute Jack Grealish ball, and Grealish himself flashing a dangerous ball across the Palace goal line that Bernardo Silva was not able to get a telling touch to.

Despite City dropping a vital two points in the title race, manager Guardiola was upbeat about his side’s performance.

“We created a lot of chances to win, but unfortunately we could not score. We played against a side who defended deep. It’s difficult to have so many shots with 10 men literally defending the ball inside the box.”

“We have many games to play still,” was Guardiola’s only comment on the title race.