'I have the feeling we are getting better' - Pep Guardiola warns Manchester City's rivals
GETTING BETTER: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola gestures to the fans. Pic: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire.
FAR from their imposing best, Manchester City displayed a clinical efficiency at Selhurst Park to move back to within two points of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
Two goals from Erling Haaland and one from Phil Foden gave the scoreline a misleading look against a Crystal Palace side who struck the woodwork early in each half. Yet titles are ultimately based on scorelines.
It didn’t matter that Oliver Glasner won the tactical battle over Pep Guardiola for 70 minutes because Palace failed to convert their many opportunities, while City turned two of their three clear-cut chances in that period into goals.
Having lost two of their previous three Premier League away games at Aston Villa and Newcastle, and then only just scrambling across the line at Fulham, all that counted in south London was the win that maintained City’s pursuit of Arsenal.
Guardiola said: “We are really pleased because I know just how tough Palace are. They are so strong every time we play against them. Their physicality, their positional strength as a team and how they defend.”
The City manager admitted he can see the same traits emerging in his team as the one which won four successive Premier Leagues titles.
He added: “I have the feeling that we are getting better. You believe that the past was always perfect when you look back at all the titles and the 100 points.
“But for the amount of things we achieved, we had a lot of games like today and the resilience was part of that.”
It was a curious game. Cagey, cautious, even tedious at times, the opening half-hour was akin to a 30-yard, pitch-wide moving blanket of outfield players shuffling backwards and forwards over the halfway line.
Riveting it was not as both sides played to deny the other midfield space in which to create opportunities.
Gradually, though, Glasner’s plan came into sharper focus, to condense the middle of the pitch as much as possible and then to look for a pass slipped quickly and firmly to their front players.
Racing clear from an Adam Wharton pass, Yeremy Pino chose to lift the ball over the onrushing Gianluigi Donnarumma, but overdid it and clipped the top of the crossbar.
Ismaila Sarr wasted a hat-trick of chances, dragging one shot so wide it almost turned into a cross and, on another occasion, choosing inexplicably to turn inside into a forest of covering City defenders instead of taking the clear shot on goal that was on offer.
What City did particularly effectively was to limit the impact that Jean-Philippe Mateta was able to have on the game.
The France striker was enveloped by two defenders any time the ball arrived in his proximity. As desperate challenges poked the ball this way and that in each untidy melee surrounding Mateta, the possibility rose of it rolling into the path of an onrushing Palace player. On one such occasion, Nathaniel Clyne skewed a shot well wide.
City were creating nothing, yet in the 41st minute, they suddenly led thanks to Haaland’s 35th goal - for club and country - of an astonishing season.
It relied upon a fine cross from the right by Matheus Nunes, yet it was also due to Haaland’s ability to find a yard of space beyond Chris Richards and direct his header back past the flailing left arm of Palace keeper Dean Henderson.
In a curious first half in which the visitors enjoyed 72% possession, that was one of just four City touches of the ball inside the Palace penalty area.
Just as in the first period, Palace made the first opportunity of the second half - and squandered it. The impressive Wharton dispossessed Nico Gonzalez just outside the left side of the area. His shot beat Donnarumma only to cannon back off the post.
As the game entered its third quarter, City finally began to create attacking space for themselves. Tijjani Reijnders tested Henderson before Rayan Cherki set off on a driving run infield and beat two defenders.
He laid the ball off to Foden and anticipated a return pass which didn’t come. Instead, Foden simply swivelled and struck an unerring low shot into the bottom corner.
At the other end, another Wharton shot went over while substitute Eddie Nketiah saw his effort beaten away by Donnarumma.
The final action of note saw City’s own substitute Savinho break clear following a Palace corner and run 50 yards before being brought down by the hand of Henderson.
The Palace fans did their best to taunt Haaland over his decision not to take a penalty in City’s FA Cup final defeat against their side in May, but it had little effect as he rolled his spot-kick home.
Revenge for that showpiece defeat at Wembley was sweet for Guardiola’s side, but closing in on Arsenal mattered more.
For Glasner, the game was the opposite of the FA Cup final, which was in some ways a source of delight for the Palace boss.
Glasner said: “It was our sixth game against City since I came here, including the Cup final and this was by far our best performance against City. It was the most competitive we have been, but the result doesn’t show it.
“It was a better performance than in our last two away games at Burnley and Fulham, but we were more efficient in those games.
“In nine out of ten parts, we were excellent today, but in the most important part, the finishing, we were not good enough.”
Henderson 7; Richards 7, Lacroix 7, Guehi 8; Clyne 6 (Uche 77, 6), Wharton 8, Kamada 7 (Hughes 67, 6), Mitchell 6; Sarr 5, Pino 6; Mateta 6 (Nketiah 63, 6).
Donnarumma 6; Nunes 7, Dias 7, Gonzalez 5, Gvardiol 6, O’Reilly 6 (Ait-Nourri 90+1, 6); Cherki 6, Silva 6 (Lewis 90+1, 6), Reijnders 7 (Savinho 85, 6), Foden 7; Haaland 8 (Marmoush 90+1, 6).
Darren England.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
