The Blues suffered yet another domestic blow on Monday night, with Crystal Palace besting them 2-1 despite a better-than-recent performance at Selhurst Park. The loss leaves them fourth in the league with a lot of work to do in the final weeks of the campaign.
City made five changes from the pre-break win against West Brom, despite winning that game easily and having few injuries – apart from Wilfried Bony, who reportedly injured himself pre-match and Edin Dzeko started instead of the Ivorian.
The first half was filled with action, and Palace almost took the lead after mere seconds through Wilfried Zaha. The ball was played across the box by Martin Kelly from deep, and the cross was missed by one player before being blazed over by Zaha from a tight angle. That chance wasn’t to go in, but it showed a sign of things to come.
City took control for much of the first half, and could easily have scored prior to Palace getting their opener. Sergio Aguero came closest to opening the scoring when he hit the post from the edge of the box, but Silva could also have been on the scoresheet, with both his big chances being saved well by Speroni.
The Eagles managed to take the lead against the run of play on 34 minutes, despite some questionable decisions in the build-up. Palace put a ball back in after a corner that found Dann, whose shot deflected to Glenn Murray via the inside of Joe Hart’s leg to give the hosts the lead. City immediately started appealing for offside decisions against Dann and/or Murray (cases for both could be argued ether way), yet Michael Oliver allowed the goal to stand. City tried to get back in the game in the remainder of the half but didn’t manage it.
Palace managed to double their lead early in the second half, and this time there was no doubt about the goal. Fernandinho took Jason Puncheon down a little way out of the box, and although the distance from goal would usually have added safety to the equation, Puncheon pulled off a supreme shot to get the ball up and over the wall, before it nestled in the bottom corner away from the diving hand of Joe Hart, who had no chance.
However, Yaya managed to halve the deficit on 78 minutes, giving City a glimmer of hope just when it looked like all might be lost. Seconds after the introduction of Samir Nasri as a substitute, Yaya managed to fire it past Julian Speroni with power to put City just a goal behind with a little over 10 minutes remaining, plus injury time.
However, City were unable to get a second and it means they go into the derby next weekend having lost four away games on the run and sit in fourth, needing a win and needing to ensure Champions League football. It’s looking increasingly like it’ll be Pellegrini’s final season in charge of the club, and many will be hoping they bring in someone with a proven track record to try and improve going into next season.
