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Manchester City: Matchday 21 player ratings

By Jason Bardwell

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 31: Kyle Walker of Manchester City and Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at Selhurst Park on December 31, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 31: Kyle Walker of Manchester City and Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at Selhurst Park on December 31, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) /
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The winning streak has come to an end. Pep Guardiola will no longer be able to take the record from Pep Guardiola for most wins in a row, in Europe’s top 5 leagues. The eighteen on a bounce will remain ‘just eighteen’ after a goal-less draw against Palace.

The result itself was not a good one. What was worse though, was the injuries to Gabriel Jesus and Kevin DeBruyne. Both went off during the game, Jesus in tears and KDB on a stretcher. And, while we are looking at around a month or two for Gabby, we yet have no official news on KDB.

I had written before, only a few days ago in fact, that players needed more protection from the referees. As Pep said in his post match comments, we had been lucky in previous games but this time, not so much. I will go into depth on that in a following article, but for now let’s see how I thought the players did against Palace.

Ederson – 6.

Early nervousness and confusion in the goal early on. Hit a clearance directly at Mangala which then resulted in a corner. Did save a penalty late on though to keep the unbeaten run intact

Walker – 8.

Probably my man of the match. Foot race between him and Zaha was interesting and, I think, in the second half the City defender just about won out.

Otamendi – 6.

Looked reasonably solid at the back again. Probably missing Stones or Kompany as that reliable partner though.

Mangala – 4.

Not sure what he was doing for that Ederson clearance I mentioned earlier. After a couple of weeks of me praising him, today he showed his ability for errors once more.

Danilo – 5.

Did a job at left back, but still missing Delph. Certainly his best position is right back, but Walker has that nailed down.

DeBruyne – 6.

Passes were off and his free-kicks were not effective. Went off late on after a nasty tackle and hopefully will not be out for long.

Fernandinho – 7.

Quietly goes about his work. Solid once more.

Gundogan – 5.

Substituted just before the hour mark for Raheem. Quiet up until that point, seeing a shot go just wide before the board went up.

Bernardo – 6.

Is he our Raheem Sterling of last year? Had an early chance which could have changed the whole complexion of the fixture. Failed to be accurate or have power on the shot. Other than that his build up play is decent.

Jesus – 5.

Felt for the guy as he fell to the ground. Knew it wasn’t good when he signaled to the bench. The question will be, as with Mendy, did keeping him of for those moments after make it worse?

Sane – 6.

Showed his frustration by kicking a ball away and getting booked. Was kept reasonably quite all game.

Next: Players Need Stronger Referees

Aguero (sub 23 mins) – 6.

Struck the post. Hopefully he finds his form, because for the next month or so, currently, he is our only recognised striker.

Sterling (sub 57 mins) – 7.

Came on and started giving the Palace defense trouble. Switched, at points, with Sane but failed to get that last-minute goal we are so used to seeing him getting. In fact he was involved in the penalty award at the end of the game, although I am not convinced of too much contact.

Toure (sub 81) – 5.

Not really too much time to do anything. Also, not the player he was from a few seasons ago. Powerful, defense splitting runs have gone from his game. He did have a free-kick but failed to test the keeper.