Crystal Palace 2 Manchester City 2 – Guardiola’s line-up falters as City suffer another title slide

Manchester City’s Premier League title ambitions were hit again as they were held to a draw by Crystal Palace.

City, which ended a run of four consecutive league defeats with a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in midweek, twice came from behind at Selhurst Park but could not find a winner and are eight points behind leaders Liverpool, who played one game less.

Erling Haaland and Rico Lewis, who was sent off late in the game for a second yellow card, both scored and canceled out goals from Daniel Munoz and Maxence Lacroix, but Pep Guardiola’s team had to settle for a point.

Thom Harris breaks down the key talking points from City’s trip to south London.

Guardiola’s setup falters

Guardiola was always aware of the challenge that awaited him at Selhurst Park. In 2017, he brought his performance analyst Carles Planchart into the dressing room to highlight Palace’s intensity and his respect for their approach hasn’t waned since.

“The physicality, Selhurst Park…” he said in his press conference previewing Saturday’s game, “it’s so difficult to build up to and the quality is there.”

These comments made City’s starting XI all the more worrying. They looked more resilient in their defensive duels against Forest in midweek, with Josko Gvardiol pushing forward in build-up play and Jack Grealish busily pushing his way through the midfield. With the latter on the bench and the former at centre-back, and with Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake suffering injuries, City again looked a bit poor.

Pep Guardiola grimaces before kick-off at Selhurst Park (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

City were suffering in a demanding first half when a familiar pattern emerged. Ilkay Gündogan and Bernardo Silva were the two deepest midfielders as City pressed without the ball and lost too many of their battles as the front line was played through.

Bernardo failed on the touchline after 14 minutes, which led to a dangerous cross. Three minutes later, Gündogan was knocked off the ball, leading to another dangerous break, while Lewis lost to Ismaila Sarr before Ruben Dias came to the rescue.

Guardiola revealed that “all the players” are struggling with fitness at the moment and the games are coming close together. Guardiola may have been thinking about this when he put Grealish back on the bench, but defensively – and physically – the first-half performance certainly felt like a major step backwards.

Individual mistakes are hard

Injuries and fatigue have played their part in this slump – as have countless tactical problems that Guardiola struggled to solve – but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that City might have had a few more results if they hadn’t constantly shot themselves in the foot.

After 15 games, City have made more errors leading to opposition shots (11) than in three of the last four full seasons, and while Palace’s second goal won’t put that tally in the record books, it was another defensive error that City has plenty of cost.

Will Hughes’ corner was good and was fired into the goal quickly enough to tie Stefan Ortega to his line, but Kyle Walker failed to challenge centre-back Lacroix, who fired a header into the goal from less than four yards.

It was a goal that disheartened City – they had over 80 percent possession in the 10 minutes after half-time and before the header – and helped slow the momentum they had built after a promising end to the second half. But most of all, it felt avoidable.

Lacroix rises highest to score the hosts’ second goal of the afternoon (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Was there anything positive I could take away?

Guardiola is always quick to praise the mental toughness of his players and although this was far from a perfect performance, City persevered.

On another day, Palace’s opener might have set the tone. This team struggles when it comes to conceding goals on their opponents’ first meaningful attacks, and Munoz’s strike was a picture-perfect mood-killer: a quick counterattack after an overly ambitious press and a save that found its way through Ortega squirmed.

City have Ruben Dias to thank largely for leading them through a first-half storm. The Portuguese centre-back was forced to sit out games against Feyenoord and the 4-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur and was sorely lacking in his ability to step in at the very last minute.

He threw himself in the way of a Hughes shot in the first half, battled with Jean-Philippe Mateta and made another heroic block after Lewis was dispossessed on the edge of the ball.

City’s second-half equalizer also showed their quality – an incisive passing move deftly completed by Lewis – while his late red card threw another curveball City’s way. At a time when it feels like everything is conspiring against City, they at least saved something on a day that could have been even worse.

Dias, left, helped prevent City from defeat (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

What did Pep Guardiola say?

“Football is a game full of mistakes,” said the city manager. “When it comes to set pieces, they are stronger than us – every single team.”

About Erling Haaland: “We are so lucky to have him. So much luck. We are lucky to also have Bernardo (Silva) and (Ilkay) Gündogan; Guys who play non-stop.

“What my players generally did in those circumstances… pfftit’s really, really good.”

What’s next for Manchester City?

Wednesday, December 11th: Juventus (A), Champions League, 8:00 p.m. GMT, 3:00 p.m. ET

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(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)