Manchester City's Premier League title defense is on the line 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 an opportunity for City to close the gap on leaders Liverpool to six points with a win, but ultimately they needed an equalizer from Erling Haaland and then Rico Lewis – who scored later on was sent off in a controversial manner. – to take even a point from Palace. City are now eight points behind the pacesetters in fourth place.
City's run of five straight away defeats is over, but that statistic will provide little consolation to Pep Guardiola, who saw his side fail to build on their win over Nottingham Forest in midweek.
Liverpool can extend their lead 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 the London derbies live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
Amid the cold, wind and rain in south London, City were dealt an immediate blow when Daniel Munoz fired home Palace's early opener after a clever pass from Will Hughes exposed the visitors' defence. After scoring his first goal for the club last weekend, he has now made it two in two at Selhurst.
Haaland's equalizer on the half hour came moments after Ruben Dias had made a crucial block on Jefferson Lerma's shattered shot in the penalty area and City's defense had been nervous and thankfully not punished again when the unmarked Ismaila Sarr shot from the edge of crossed the sixteen. the box.
But with Kevin De Bruyne starting again for City, there was threat in the final third, with the Belgian playing Haaland for a one-on-one that Dean Henderson somehow kept out with his face before Ilkay Gundogan hit a post struck and Savinho sent the follow-up wastefully wide.
Haaland's header from Matheus Nunes' cross – continuing his all-time scoring streak against Palace in the Premier League – should have been the platform for City to go ahead and assert their authority, but their possession was ineffective start of the second half. instead they were behind again when Lacroix jumped above the rooted Kyle Walker to head in Palace's second.
There was a flash of City at their best for the second equalizer, with De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva involved to play in Lewis for a cleverly disguised finish. It was his third Premier League goal and they all came against Palace.
But he won't remember this one fondly. After being booked for dissent, he was wrongly dismissed by referee Rob Jones when Trevoh Chalobah caught him in a collision. The VAR could not participate because it was a yellow card.
Until ten, City didn't make anything worth mentioning in the final moments. The win over Forest gave City hope, but this was a painful reminder that they still have a lot of work to do to get back to the level needed to mix it up in this title race.
As for Palace, it is now just one defeat in eight in all competitions and things are looking good for Oliver Glasner's side, who sit 16th, four points above the drop zone.
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