Well, if we didn't already have a title race on our hands then we certainly do now. Manchester City could only manage a goalless draw against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Monday night, the second time this season that Pep Guardiola's side have dropped points against the Eagles.
This meeting was the opposite of October's 2-0 defeat in which City struggled to create chances; the Blues created a shed load - 18 shots to be precise - but just couldn't score. As time wore on it seemed logical that Guardiola would make a substitution to freshen things up, but the change never came.
The 11 players that sprung onto the pitch shortly before 8pm were the same 11 that trudged off it in disappointment at before 10pm, something many are criticising Guardiola for. It seems a little ironic that just 16 months ago, it was Guardiola who was calling on the Premier League to bring back the five substitutions per game rule that was temporarily introduced during project restart in 2020.
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At the time he cited an increase in muscular injuries suffered by players following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason, yet when some of his attackers started to flag on Monday night, he decided not to turn to the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling or Ilkay Gundogan on the bench.
The thing is though, Guardiola was arguably justified in not making any changes during the 90 minutes. As the City boss said after the game, his side played well. Bar the opening 20 minutes during which Palace's pressing disrupted City's build-up play and resulted in a couple of dangerous counter-attacks, City dominated and controlled the game.
The Blues enjoyed 74% possession, took 18 shots, created four big chances and registered an xG rating of 2.79, but they just could not score. "They did everything, absolutely everything to win the game," Guardiola said of his players. "Unfortunately we could not score. We found the spaces, small combinations and transitions, but unfortunately we couldn't score. Luck doesn't exist in football. We have to score and we didn't. We struggled a little bit."
Pep named an unchanged team from the one that stuck four goals past Manchester United in City's last Premier League outing. The starting front three of Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez were supported by Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne as the number eights.
While perhaps not at their very best, they didn't take long to start finding ways through Palace's deep-lying and compact defence. As Guardiola said, luck doesn't exist in football - on the night Bernardo and Aymeric Laporte both missed two huge chances, ones that nine times out of 10 they'd put away. The fact that they didn't wasn't down to City playing badly, just individual shortcomings.
Asked why he didn't turn to his substitutes, Guardiola said: "I did think about that, but the guys who were playing were good. The game was in a high, high rhythm, so today I decided to continue with those guys."
You could make the argument that perhaps Sterling or Jesus could have come on near the end, fresh faces who hadn't endured over an hour of frustration in front of goal. But then City's attack was still creating as the game entered the final stages, so it's debatable whether either would have adapted to the pace of the game quickly enough to make an impact.
No City player has more than the seven goals Sterling has scored against Palace, but neither he nor Jesus have a reputation for scoring big chances under high pressure. City's most clinical finishers - Mahrez and Foden - were already on the pitch.
Guardiola was more than justified in leaving his team as it was. Sometimes the best footballers have off days in front of goal, just normally they don't all do it at the same time.
