Palace and City survive the storms surrounding them

Crystal Palace (1) 2 v Manchester City (1) 2

By Kaz Mochlinski at Selhurst Park

Premier League

Matchweek 15

Talking Points

“We’re staying up, we’re staying up, City’s staying up!” was the song of the away fans after Manchester City managed to equalise against Crystal Palace, something which they needed to do twice this time for a draw at Selhurst Park.

To the tune of David Baddiel and Frank Skinner’s famous ‘Three Lions’, the singing showed that the City supporters had managed to maintain their sense of humour despite the club’s poor recent run after all the easy success of previous seasons.

It is not yet something which Crystal Palace fans are also able to sing, as Oliver Glasner’s side still remain precariously towards the bottom of the Premier League table, only just above the relegation zone.

But there are encouragingly clear signs of progress in the right direction from his team, which has now put together an unbeaten run of four league games, even if three of those results have been draws.

In fact, since beating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at Selhurst Park to initially move out of the relegation places six weeks ago, Palace have only lost once in their last eight matches in all competitions.

Frustratingly, that success against Spurs continues to be their solitary victory so far in eight league games at home this season. Overall, in their first 15 Premier League encounters of 2024-25, Palace have managed to register just two wins.

And yet the South London side have been competitive in almost every match that they have been involved in up to now, even against the top flight’s biggest clubs. That was again very much the case versus Manchester City.

The disappointing results at the beginning of this campaign were given added prominence by Palace’s exceptional end to last season with six wins in seven games after Glasner’s arrival at the club.

But it was always likely that they would take some time to get over the summer, when they lost Michael Olise to Bayern Munich and Joachim Andersen to Fulham, among other transfer moves in and out of the squad.

Jean-Philippe Mateta also had to recover physically and emotionally from his exertions alongside Olise in July and August during the Paris Olympics, when they helped France secure a silver medal in the men’s football competition at their home Games.

Eberechi Eze likewise had to get over his June and July involvement in Euro 2024, his first major tournament as part of the England squad. Plus he had to deal with all the growing transfer speculation about him.

Furthermore, Eze has to cope with being Palace’s biggest star now. Though this time both the hosts’ goals against Manchester City came from defenders, with Daniel Muñoz scoring in the first half and Maxence Lacroix in the second half.

For Muñoz it was his second goal in two home matches, after opening his account for Palace seven days earlier versus Newcastle United. Lacroix followed his teammate’s example by getting his first goal for the club in the game with City.

Will Hughes provided both the assists for Muñoz and Lacroix. And the Manchester City captain Kyle Walker was culpable for both goals from the defensive perspective. It was part of a pleasing symmetry to the match.

There was a goal apiece from Palace and City in each half, with the two sides scoring once at either end of Selhurst Park. Both the goals at the Holmesdale Road End came from free-flowing moves, while the two goals at the Whitehorse Lane End were scored with headers.

And of course Erling Haaland added to his goal tally. The Norwegian striker got his first-ever Premier League hat-trick when playing Palace in August 2022, and he has now scored in all four of his league appearances against them.

Some statistics seem almost self-perpetuating. After Muñoz’s fourth-minute goal, Manchester City have conceded a total of seven times in the first quarter of an hour of games this season, more than any other side.

However, City are unbeaten in each of the past 32 league fixtures that Kevin De Bruyne has started, winning 26. His return has definitely helped, although they have still only managed one victory in their last nine matches.

At least at Selhurst Park the Citizens ended a run of five consecutive defeats in away games in all competitions. Coincidentally, the previous reigning top-flight champions to lose six competitive away matches in a row were City themselves, between March and April 1969.

The current City squad had equalled a club record by winning six successive top-division games away to London opposition, but against Palace they dropped points in the capital for the first time since a 4-4 draw at Chelsea in November last year.

As the Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, himself acknowledges, his team are now no longer able to maintain their dominance of past years, admitting: “It’s a season to suffer.”

That might have been eased a little more if the Palace goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, had not continued his exceptional form with fine saves in both the first and second half, on his 100th Premier League appearance.

It meant that there was hardly any difference on the day between the clubs starting fourth bottom and fourth top in the league standings. In their current circumstances, both would accept that.

Selhurst Park is tucked into the slopes of Crystal Palace Hill, sheltering it from the worst of the weekend wind and rain. Palace and City will hope that they stay equally resilient to the non-meteorological storms that have been surrounding them.