City Maintain Title Challenge With Victory Over Palace

This was a game of two halves with the Eagles impressing in the opening forty-five while the visitors stepped up after the break to see off the brave hosts.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 12.30pm – 6^th April 2024
• Crystal Palace 2-4 Manchester City
• Selhurst Park, Holmesdale Road, London SE25 6PU

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 5 James TOMKINS, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 52 David OZOH, 55 Franco UMEH-CHIBUEZE

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 11 Jeremy DOKU, 21 Sergio GOMEZ, 31 EDERSON, 47 Phil FODEN, 76 Mahamadou SUSOHO

TEB VERDICT               

While this was an expected defeat against City, there was plenty of positive to take from the performance.

Jean-Philippe Mateta put in another quality performance and bagging an excellent opening goal. Adam Wharton and Daniel Munoz continued to impress as they have since they joined the club, Joachim Andersen stood up and was counted amid a makeshift defence which was not obvious as Jefferson Lerma did not look out of place alongside the Dane.

It was also good to see Dean Henderson pull out a number of saves which will give him a lot of confidence and perhaps put some faith in fans that have been very critical of late.

While Ebere Eze struggled, the sight of Michael Olise back on the pitch was a sight to behold and his contribution will likely play a big part for Palace in the run in to the end of the season.

The downside is that results elsewhere means that heading into next weekend’s trip to Liverpool, the gap between Palace and the bottom three has been closed to five points which makes things a little nervier than we had hoped. There is plenty of football still to be played but the Eagles must find a way of winning a game or two before the end of the season.

BOB’S POINT OF VIEW

Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.

“As I arrived at the ground and looked at City’s bench, it made one realise that probably most if not all would make our starting XI confirming the huge gap in resources between the two clubs.

A perfect start after three minutes by Palace following an excellent Mateta finish gave our players the impetus and confidence for a very decent first half performance. A quality strike by de Bruyne after 13 minutes didn’t lessen those performance levels and the 1-1 score at the interval certainly didn’t flatter the Palace team.

The main debating point, the challenge on Eze in the penalty box. Although there was no VAR intervention in overturning a no penalty award, I’m certain if that challenge had happened in the middle of the park a free kick would have been awarded.

Unfortunately, all the previous good work by our players was undone in a matter of minutes into the second half through a Lewis finish following disappointing defending. Two further City goals within a five minute spell effectively ended the contest even though we created an opportunity for Edouard to score with a neat finish from a Schlupp cross late on. However, it proved to be too little too late to affect the final result.

Overall, Palace played their full part in an entertaining game but after recent crucial points dropped against Forest, Luton and Bournemouth plus looking at our fixtures ahead, make no mistake, we remain in a relegation scrap.

With the current bottom two clubs now almost certain for the drop, it’s one other club from Forest, Everton, Luton, Brentford and Palace to join them.

A final points total of 34 will probably be enough for us to escape relegation but 36 points would make me sleep easier at night!

Reflecting back on the game, there were some individual positives going forwards until the end of the season. Wharton already looks a top player at this level, Mateta continues to improve and impress leading the line and seeing the return of Olise in the final stages of the game will provide more potency to our offensive threat in future games.

However, our defence urgently requires the return of Guehi allowing Lerma to revert to his midfield position alongside Wharton and Eze.”

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“It was an excellent first half. Of course, City had more possession. They had chances because they are a good side but we defended well and took our opportunity. We had two or three more chances and hit the post. We won the ball very high.

It was 1-1 then the second goal for City was too early after half-time. There was a lot of pressure and you could see their quality passing with one or two touches. It was 15 or 20 minutes that decided the game. The top teams, when you give them three or four opportunities, they take it.

At the end we also scored a nice second goal but to come back into the game you have to score your chances. I am really pleased with the performance from the substitutes and the defence.

I’m not satisfied with the result but I saw many positive things in our performance. When we lose 4-2, I don’t want to talk about positive things but in phases of the game we could compete. It shows we are able to create chances but of course when you concede four goals, you lose.”

PEP GUARDIOLA

“In the first half we did mistakes but we made a comeback and Kevin de Bruyne won the game with his actions, his assists, his goals and everything. We won the game with him.

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

14/04/24 Liverpool (a) – Premier League 2pm

21/04/24 West Ham United (h) – Premier League 3pm

24/04/24 Newcastle (h) – Premier League 8pm