Sachin Nakrani’s match report has arrived, so I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for your company - goodnight!
Gabriel Jesus speaks “It’s always difficult against Palace. We have to try to win every game, and I think this season is going to be the same as last year [with a relentless title race]. I try to improve my football all the time, because I have Aguero with me – he’s a legend at City, so I have to work every day to be ready for when I’m on the pitch.
“I tried to head it [for the goal], but it hit my shoulder. I was a little bit lucky! I have to improve that part of my game, but what a cross from Bernardo Silva. With Bernardo and especially Kevin [de Bruyne], I know when and where the cross is coming and I make my runs based on that. I focus on the goal all the time. I think that’s why I score a lot!”
Full time: Crystal Palace 0-2 Manchester City
Peep peep! City move to within five points of Liverpool with an easy win at Selhurst Park. Gabriel Jesus and David Silva scored just before half-time, the second a beauty, and Palace rarely looked like getting back into the game.
90+1 min Three minutes of added time.
90 min Pep Guardiola again shows his commitment to youth by bringing on Phil Foden for Kevin De Bruyne.
90 min There’s a break in play after a clash of heads between Hennessey and McArthur. They seem fine.
88 min Ederson makes another excellent save, diving to his right to beat away a vicious shot from Zaha. Ayew, on the stretch, volleys the rebound into orbit.
87 min Joao Cancelo’s low cross is screwed wide by Sterling, who could have had a hat-trick today. If he becomes a really clinical finisher, he’ll score 50 a season in this team.
86 min You’d expect City to win their next two league games, at home to Villa and Southampton. Then it’s the humdinger’s humdinger: Liverpool away on 10 November.
85 min Joao Cancelo moves onto his left foot and whacks a shot that hits the chest of Cahill and flies behind for a corner. This, in truth, has been a 2-0 thrashing.
84 min James Tomkins is replaced by Scott Dann for Palace.
82 min Zaha is complaining to the referee about the lack of yellow cards for City’s tactical fouling. I suspect Anthony Taylor is going to book someone in a minute - Zaha himself, if he doesn’t shut up. I have plenty of sympathy with Zaha, though, because City are extremely good at those play-breaking fouls.
81 min: De Bruyne hits the post! Gundogan wriggled away from a couple of men on the right of the box and clipped a cross to the near post, where De Bruyne arrived late to flick a header across goal and off the inside of the far post. He probably should have scored, but I’ll forgive that man anything while he continues to play at least one orgiastic pass/cross in every match.
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80 min David Silva, the Man of the Match for mine, is replaced by John Stones. Rodri moves forward into midfield.
79 min Another chance for City. Sterling, found by a beautiful reverse pass tom the superb David Silva, flicks an abysmal left-footed shot so far across goal that it almost goes out for a throw-in. Just before that, Hennessey made a smart reaction save from an errant header by his own player Kouyate.
77 min Gabriel Jesus wastes a great chance to make it 3-0. City broke dangerously again, with Sterling playing Jesus through. He should have squared it to De Bruyne, who had an open goal on the other side of the six-yard box, but instead hit a shot that was beaten behind by Hennessey. I suspect that, in the dressing-room, Pep will ruin him for that little act of selfishness.
76 min Christian Benteke replaces Milivojevic - and hits the bar with his first touch! He met van Aanholt’s deep, outswinging corner with a thumping header back across goal, and Ederson dived a long way to his right to fingertip it onto the bar. That was a quite brilliant save, especially as he’s had the square root of bugger all to do all night. He is a sensational keeper.
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75 min “Am I the only one,” says Michael Ireton, “who is craving a Tequila Sunrise after watching Man City for an hour?”
74 min Good play from Palace. Zaha plays a one-two with McArthur and hits a deep cross that is volleyed towards goal by van Aanholt on the edge of the area. It’s well struck but a City defender on the six-yard line hoofs it away.
73 min Hennessey makes another good save, this time leaping to push Bernardo Silva’s shot over the bar. It wasn’t as good as the save from Jesus BUT THEY ALL BLOODY WELL COUNT IN FANTASY FOOTBALL, SO BE AWAY WITH YOU.
69 min “Epnalty?” muses Ben Park. “Is that a new penalty which has to be scored on Fifa 20? Wouldn’t put it past Fifa as a marketing strategy.”
For the Game. For the World.
68 min Hennessey makes a superb one-handed save, diving to his right, from Gabriel Jesus’s fierce left-footed shot.
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66 min I wonder if the City players ever get bored with this type of match. It has been so easy for them.
No penalty. Well done everyone.
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VAR check! They are still looking at it. It could easily have been given on the field, but it’s not a clear and obvious error.
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62 min De Bruyne goes down in the area after a clumsy challenge from Zaha. No epnalty is given, and VAR is unlikely to overturn it. It was a risky tackle though.
61 min City are cruising to victory. The second half has been painfully one-sided.
58 min This victory will move City back up to second, five points behind Liverpool. Palace will stay sixth.
55 min Crystal Palace make the obvious substition, with Andros Townsend - who scored that awesome volley at the Etihad last December - replacing Jeff Schlupp.
55 min Sterling misses a decent chance, slicing wide with his left foot from 17 yards.
54 min “I understand that there are a huge range of opinions (some of which are actually valid...) over VAR, but I think we can all agree that the biggest problem so far has been the lack of the constant, nonsense penalties that we were threatened with,” says Matt Dony. “I selected Zaha for my fantasy team purely because he gets kicked so much. This far into the season, it has not paid off.”
On the plus si- no.
52 min Sterling whistles a low shot from just inside the area that hits the outside of the post and goes wide. Those last three words, I appreciate, were entirely unnecessary. Sterling is good, really foppin good, but not so good that he can hit a shot off the outside of the post that stays on the pitch.
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50 min “I must protest,” says Mary Waltz. “The City kit resembles what happens if you make a pasta and shrimp dish and leave it in your refrigerator for a year.”
49 min Kouyate takes matters into his own feet, playing a nice one-two with McArthur before slicing a shot well wide from 25 yards.
48 min Palace win a free-kick on the right wing. Milivojevic curls it in, Fernandinho heads clear. City’s midfence has had an easy night so far.
47 min “Evening Rob,” says Simon McMahon. “I hope you’ve had a good October. The clocks go back next Sunday. I suggest we put them back to 1983?”
46 min Sterling is booked for a late tackle on Ward, who goes looking for afters without success.
46 min Peep peep! City begin the second half.
Half time: Crystal Palace 0-2 Manchester City
Peep peep! City are cruising towards an important victory. After a frustrating first 38 minutes, in which they had all the ball without creating many clear chances, Gabriel Jesus and David Silva scored in quick succession to give City a nice cushion. Palace have been unable to get at the unlikely centre-back pairing of Fernandinho and Rodri.
45 min “I think the kits look wonderful - kind of reminiscent of old-fashioned sweeties in jars, or batten burg cakes, or marzipan or something,” says Bill Hargreaves. “A little-known fact: the Manchester City kits are manufactured by the players standing in vats of dye as the colour moves up their torsos, kind of like a secondary school experiment in surface tension.”
We all live in a post-fact world.
44 min Kouyate is kicked in the face by De Bruyne, who was going for a high ball. A foul has been given but that’s all. I’m not sure why he wasn’t booked, but at least we can’t say it was a tactical foul.
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The second goal came 30 seconds after the restart. De Bruyne led a City break with a marauding run past the halfway line. Eventually the ball came to Sterling, just inside the area on the left. He waited for the run of David Silva on his inside and kissed a delicious pass over two defenders into his path. Silva watched the ball onto his left foot and swished a volley through the legs of Hennessey. The pass from Sterling was exquisite, the finish merely excellent.
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GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-2 Manchester City (D Silva 41)
This is a great goal!
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So much for an organised defence. Bernardo Silva’s inswinging cross from the right found Gabriel Jesus in far too much space eight yards from goal. He mistimed a flicked diving header, but the ball ran off his shoulder and drifted into the net off the far post.
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GOAL! Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City (Gabriel Jesus 39)
One-nil!
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38 min City continue to have a barely legal amount of possession without getting behind Palace’s superbly organised defence. Zaha and Ayew have switched positions, with Zaha as the lone striker for the time being.
37 min “Man City are modelling the first ever half and half kit,” sniffs Ian Copestake.
If so, they’re playing more like Palermo than Brazil.
36 min “I’m camped out at work, meant to be writing a lecture for Monday,” says Zubin Mistry. “But keep getting distracted by various surprising things that have been going on today. Like the curious Man City formation in the MBM team news: (0-4-1-2-3). Am I missing a tactics in-joke? Or is this a ‘clear and obvious error’ that maybe, just maybe, a VAR check might clear up? I need to know or Monday’s lecture just won’t get written.”
It was an essentially lame way of saying they have a defence made up of midfield players who will spend most of the game in the middle of the pitch.
33 min No danger here: Milivojevic’s free-kick hits the wall.
32 min After a sloppy pass from Fernandinho, Zaha is fouled by Gundogan 25 yards from goal. Danger here...
30 min “I love the kit!” says Richard Fosbury. “As it looks like it’s a pack of Refreshers it makes an, erm, refreshing change from the reds, whites and blues!”
29 min David Silva overhits a relatively simple return pass to Sterling. City are starting to get slightly frustrated by Palace’s diligent defending.
27 min It was a clash of heads between Ayew and Fernandinho. He seems okay and is going to continue.
26 min Joao Cancelo’s long-range shot is comfortably saved by Hennessey. Fernandinho is down, holding his head, and John Stones has gone out to warm up.
25 min McArthur plays a ball out towards Zaha on the right, just past the halfway line. Rodri slips, which allows Zaha to hare down the right wing, but Sterling gets back to cover and makes an immaculate tackle just outside the area.
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24 min City have had 80 per cent of the possession. Palace can’t sustain this for 90 minutes, surely. They have been surprisingly wishy-washy on the counter-attack.
22 min “City’s alternate kit reminds me of a Retirement Home director attempting to raise the senior’s spirit with a new colour scheme in the dining hall,” says Mary Waltz. “It simply causes nausea and confusion amongst the old folks.”
If only William Morris made football kits.
21 min Gundogan’s relatively innocuous curler from 25 yards almost beats Hennessey. There must have been a deflection, because it ended up hitting Hennessey on the leg.
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19 min A promising break from Palace is nipped in the bud when Fernandinho scoots across to reach the ball ahead of Zaha.
18 min “Dear Rob,” says Michael Greville. “My thoughts have turned to the original title of Tom Wofle’s first collection of essays, about custom cars apparently. ‘There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!) Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm)…’. Perhaps not today, though. Colour-wise, although red v blue is good, I’ve always though Liverpool v Wolves against bright green on a sunny day was best (but not with TV set to ‘vivid’)‘.”
I don’t know what to thnk, never mind say. I don’t think I’ve ever considered what might be the best combination of kits, never mind which TV setting I should use.
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17 min Sterling plays a one-two with Gundogan, only to make a mess of his attempted volleyed cross.
16 min The corner is half cleared to Bernardo Silva on the right side of the box. He floats a curler towards the far corner that is flapped away by Hennessey, and Jesus heads the loose ball wide.
15 min Palace have been unable to get Zaha into the game. It’s starting to feel like a City goal is coming. De Bruyne, found by a fine pass from Bernardo Silva, plays a typically devastating ball across the six-yard box that is put behind by Ward at the far post.
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13 min Milivojevic gets his usual booking, this time for applying his boot to Gabriel Jesus’s ankle.
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11 min City are having at least 70 per cent of the possession, as at least 100 per cent of us expected, but they are yet to create a clear chance. Roy Hodgson’s teams are invariably difficult to break down.
9 min “John Stones has family problems,” says Jon Heslop, “so I imagine he’s being eased back in while he sorts them out.”
Isn’t it usually the case with personal issues that you either miss the match or don’t, rather than being eased back in? I suppose it’s hard to comment without knowing the nature of his problems.
7 min David Silva shoots straight at Hennessey from 20 yards. The chance came after a mistake from Milivojevic.
6 min “Obviously Pep will be frustrated at injuries to defenders, and I’m sure he wouldn’t wish ill on anyone,” says Matt Dony. “But you just know there’s a part of him that’s absolutely over the (blue) moon at being able to field two extra midfielders. Moving inexorably towards his dream of 10-midfielder dominance.”
Ten? You’ve forgotten the holding midfielder Ederson.
5 min De Bruyne’s whipped first-time cross is headed over by the stretching Jesus beyond the far post. City look sharp with and especially without the ball.
4 min City, in their execrable ice-lolly away kit, have had most of the possession the first few minutes. Nothihg much to report.
2 min “I see that Stones is on the bench, but not in the XI,” says Seventh Horcrux. “Why put him on the bench while playing a CDM in his role instead? Is Stones not fully fit? If so, why put him on the bench at all? Doesn’t make sense for a central defender to me. Am I missing something?”
He’s been out for a month so he won’t be match sharp. That said, in his interview Guardiola rambled a bit about there being another game in three days’ time. If this was a title decider, I’m sure Stones would have started. It has the feel of a Mourinho-style sulk selection, but only Pep knows.
1 min Peep peep! Palace kick off from left to right.
The players emerge from the tunnel, ready for business. There’s a superb atmosphere at Selhurst Park, which pound-for-pound is possibly the most atmospheric ground in the Premier League.
“Rob, aren’t football formations (just like assistant referees flagging offsides) outmoded nowadays?” says Ravikiran Ramakrishnan. “Pep is playing with no centre-halves and played with Bernardo Silva at full back for one of the games last season. What’s the point in pretending that us peasants understand Pep the football genius?”
I don’t think they’re outmoded. I do agree that tactics coverage – even from the best writers – can only get so close to what goes on behind closed doors. But tactics are much easier to write about than the things that have the biggest influence on the result of a football match: morale, man-management, the life of the mind, and whether the centre-forward had a sly Wimpy and chips on the way to the ground.
Pep Guardiola is high on life “Rodri and Dinho will play in defence. [Is the key controlling the counter-attack and not letting their pacy players get at your defenders?] Well done. Congratulations. You can be manager. That is our dream but they have top players and we know how difficult it is.”
Pre-match reading
In a surprising development, VAR has stuck its oar into most of this afternoon’s matches. It sounds like Burnley have been the latest victims of football’s all-singing, all-dancing kangaroo court.
Team news
Manchester City are without Nicolas Otamendi and Kyle Walker, so they have a centre-back pairing of Fernandinho and Rodri. Oh I say!
Crystal Palace (4-1-4-1) Hennessey; Ward, Cahill, Tomkins, van Aanholt; Milivojevic; Zaha, Kouyate, McArthur, Schlupp; Ayew.
Substitutes: Henderson, Dann, McCarthy, Meyer, Townsend, Riedewald, Benteke,
Manchester City (0-4-1-2-3) Ederson; Joao Cancelo, Fernandinho, Rodri, Mendy; Gundogan; De Bruyne, D Silva; B Silva, Jesus, Sterling.
Substitutes: Bravo, Stones, Angelino, Garcia, Aguero, Mahrez, Foden.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
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Preamble
Hello. The last time Manchester City had a blip, they won 18 of the next 19 league games to pip Liverpool to the title. They will need produce the same murderous form over an even longer stretch if they are to reel Liverpool in this year. City have dropped eight points in eight games, which equals their worst start to a league season since the Abu Dhabi United Group takeover in 2008. Last season they dropped 16 points in 38 matches.
All they can do is start winning again, then keep winning, and hope Liverpool get an almighty case of finishinglineitis. But it’s not beyond the realms that the title race could be over by the time City leave Anfield on 10 November.
Today’s match certainly isn’t a banker for City. Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace are one of only two teams, Liverpool being the other, to take points off them in each of the last two seasons. That statistic is a reflection of how dominant City have been in recent times. Indeed, they’ve won 79 of their last 100 Premier League games.
I haven’t had time to work out but that must be a seriously high win percentage. If they are to win a third consecutive title, it will probably need to be even higher.
Kick off is at 5.30pm.
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