Manchester City struggling to eek out a draw 2-2 with Crystal Palace in a Premier League match at the Selhurst Park last Saturday, December 7. The Cityzens are now fourth in the league table with 27 points in 15 matches. Table-toppers Liverpool have 35 points from 14 matches and thus the Reds are comfortably ahead of the Sky Blues, with Arsenal and Chelsea slotted second and third.
Manchester City have now dropped 13 points already away from home this season. In the entire 2023-24 season, they had dropped 13 points away, which gives an idea about how underwhelming their form has been this season.
Manchester City marginally more bite in attack
The Cityzens had more bite in their attack against Crystal Palace than they have had in the recent past. Kevin de Bruyne’s inclusion in the starting XI added sting to their attack. City played with a 3-2-4-1 formation while in possession, with Rico Lewis playing as a hybrid left-back.
Rúben Dias and Joško Gvardiol played as the two centre-backs and did a reasonably good job at containing Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace’s counter-attacks. However, Lewis was caught out of his position once that allowed the home side score their first goal.
However, Mattheus Nunes played well on the left flank and kept playing crosses with his right foot into the box. One of Nunes’ cross helped Manchester City equalize as Erling Haaland scored his 18th goal of the season with a header.
The Palace defence started paying extra attention to Nunes thereafter to prevent him from delivering those crosses freely. As Crystal Palace scored once again at the beginning of the second half, City started playing with a 3-1-5-1 formation, with Lewis playing in an advanced role and İlkay Gündoğan as the lone defensive midfielder.
Manchester City struggling to make a few quick moves upfront, set a tone with one-touch passes ensuring their second goal. With most teams preferring to defend in numbers against the English champions, it might be a good idea for them to play those one-touch passes more often in the final third.
However, the poor form of Savinho must have kept Pep Guardiola worried. The Brazilian winger hardly offered anything significant on the right flank and had to be replaced by Jérémy Doku with about 20 minutes to go.
Lewis’ second yellow card, which reduced the Cityzens for the last 10 minutes or so, virtually ended their chances of securing a victory. The gap with Liverpool thus remained too big for the Cityzens to potentially overcome.
Manchester City struggling amidst crucial matches ahead
The English champions will play against Manchester United next Sunday, December 15, and will then face Aston Villa. Both United and Villa have been inconsistent of late, but the Cityzens cannot afford to take things lightly and will have to go for three points in each of those matches.
With several important players missing due to injury, Pep will now have to hope that Liverpool keep dropping points on a regular basis to give them a chance to bridge the gap between the two teams. Anything less than three points should not satisfy them from this point onwards, irrespective of the opposition. Oh, and they still have Arsenal and Chelsea to contend with.