If Manchester City go on to retain the title they may look back at this game as an important step. The champions arrived here with their backs against the wall having lost to Wolves before the international break and with Liverpool sailing off in the distance. If that was not bad enough, Pep Guardiola was forced into deploying a team containing no recognised central defenders. Another slip looked possible but instead City showed their class and defiance to record a victory that puts them within five points of Jürgen Klopp’s men, who visit Old Trafford on Sunday.
It remains early days in the title race but this nevertheless felt like a notable win for Guardiola’s team given the context and the circumstances. Some sides may have stumbled; City instead dominated possession, territory and chances created. Crystal Palace mustered a period of pressure late on, having been deflated by Gabriel Jesus and David Silva’s goals in the space of two first-half minutes, but that merely gave the platform for Ederson to show why he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
“As always we were good,” said Guardiola. “This was an important three points away from home and hopefully we can continue with our good performances.”
City’s next chance to shine comes against Atalanta in the Champions League on Tuesday and it will be intriguing to see if Guardiola again deploys Fernandinho and Rodri as his centre-backs.
His hand was somewhat forced into doing so here given Aymeric Laporte’s long-term absence with a knee injury and the knock Nicolás Otamendi sustained on international duty. John Stones was back from a thigh injury but he was deemed fit enough only for the bench. All that meant Guardiola doing that most Guardiola of things and playing two midfielders at the heart of a defence also lacking Kyle Walker due to illness.
Fernandinho and Rodri performed well as a partnership but, in truth, that was because they were rarely tested: partly because of how City controlled proceedings and partly because of Palace’s lack of threat until Christian Benteke came on as a 76th-minute substitute.
“I thank both of them [Fernandinho and Rodri] because it’s not easy to play against the strikers Palace have,” said Guardiola. “They did really well.”
That was pretty much the case for everyone who featured for City, in particular Bernardo Silva, David Silva and, on his return from a groin injury, Kevin De Bruyne.
The trio not only hogged possession in midfield but also used it sharply and quickly, while off the ball they contributed to a collective press that prevented Palace building up much momentum.
Jesus also shone having been selected ahead of Sergio Agüero in attack and he fully justified that decision with a diving header from Bernardo Silva’s excellent cross on 39 minutes that secured his 50th goal for the club. City’s second goal was a thing of beauty, a sweeping crossfield move that ended with Raheem Sterling playing a perfectly weighted chipped pass into the path of David Silva, who volleyed the ball expertly through the legs of Wayne Hennessey.
The only frustration for Guardiola was that his team did not score more, and in particular that they were denied the chance to do so from the penalty spot after Wilfried Zaha appeared to push De Bruyne in the area on 62 minutes.
The referee Anthony Taylor did not give it and neither did Michael Oliver on review in his role as VAR. “He [De Bruyne] dived,” Guardiola said with dripping sarcasm. “Every week he is diving.”
For Palace this was a first home defeat since they lost 3-1 to City in April. The closest they came to scoring was through Benteke’s header, less than a minute after he replaced Luka Milivojevic, and Zaha’s drilled effort on 88 minutes.
But on both occasions Ederson made fine diving saves and ultimately there was a sense that things could have been different had Roy Hodgson released his team from the shackles of their 4-5-1 formation much earlier. Not that he saw it that way.
“We could not have done more against what is a very good team,” said the Palace manager. “If we spend £250m and bring in some of the best players from Europe we may have a chance but we’re hardly playing on a level playing field right now.”
