Manchester City 2-2 Crystal Palace: City slip late
Manchester City were held in check by a stubborn Crystal Palace side with a late Fernandinho own goal denying City the three points.
Crystal Palace have been a bogey side for Manchester City in recent seasons under Pep Guardiola. The Eagles took all three points off City at the Etihad a year ago, and it looked as if they might do the same before a late Sergio Agüero double got the home side back into the match.
City were certainly not at their best, but surely created chances. Kevin de Bruyne rifled an excellent free kick from distance off the crossbar and VAR controversially denied the home side a penalty, but for the first 80 minutes, a Cenk Tosun headed goal separated the sides.
The Citizens pushed with everything they had for much of the second half, but the last ten minutes is when the intensity was truly turned up. With City looking like they had lost, an Agüero brace suddenly put them into the lead before switching off and conceding a terrible equalizer created by Wilfried Zaha and going in as a Fernandinho own goal.
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Although City did not look like they would get a result for much of the match, the result is once again extremely disheartening. This draw was certainly not the ideal way to celebrate Guardiola’s birthday, but hopefully it will be one of the final matches before Aymeric Laporte returns, which will completely alter the team’s structure and outlook on the season.
City need to improve in the coming weeks prior to the Real Madrid tie. Although the attack was incapable of breaking down the Palace defense for much of the evening, it just speaks to City’s entire season that when the team needed the defense the most, it let them down. Leicester now have an opportunity to go level in second tomorrow, while City will face Sheffield United at Bramall Lane next.