Following Arsenal’s last-gasp winner at home to Wolves on Saturday night, Manchester City’s trip to Selhurst Park on Sunday felt like it could become pivotal.
With the gap at the top of the Premier League stretched back to five points, the pressure was on City to win this one, but Crystal Palace are a formidable unit, and the game looked very much like a potential banana skin for the visitors. Given City haven’t been their imperious best consistently this season, there was good reason to believe this would be no walk in the park.
And to begin with, Palace were the better of the teams. They threatened with vertical play and transitions that consistently troubled City’s backline. First, Adam Wharton sent Yeremy Pino through on goal with a smart ball over the top but the Spaniard, with all the time in the world, could only clip the top of Gianluigi Donnarumma’s crossbar.
Not long after, Ismaïla Sarr raced forward down the right but could not produce an effort to trouble the City goalkeeper.
City, meanwhile, failed to register a single shot in the opening 25 minutes of a Premier League match for the first time since December 2024 (v Liverpool). Phil Foden eventually had their first shot on 29 minutes.
It took another 12 for them to have another effort, but it fell to the irrepressible Erling Haaland, and he headed Matheus Nunes’ cross effortlessly into the corner of the net. There were 25 passes in the build-up to the goal, the most for a Manchester City goal in the Premier League since Rodri vs West Ham in May 2024 (31).
There was no denying that City were fortunate to go in a goal up at the break. They managed just four touches in the opposition box in the first half, only having fewer in three Premier League matches under Guardiola (three vs Arsenal in September 2025, three vs Manchester United in March 2020, and three vs Liverpool in December 2016).
Palace fought to try and find a way back into the game and created plenty more, but were made to pay for failing to take advantage when Foden struck a second for City from the edge of the box. It was his seventh goal involvement (six goals, one assist) in his last four Premier League games, while it was his eighth goal from outside the box since the beginning of 2023-24. Only Kylian Mbappé (14) has scored more in Europe’s big five leagues in that time.