Just when Manchester City are creaking, they find a way. It helps, of course, to have Kevin De Bruyne around. His 99th goal for the club wrenched City back level just when it seemed Crystal Palace had the tools to take down the champions. And after a first half of frustration, having Jack Grealish around to play a key role in goals from Rico Lewis and Erling Haaland before De Bruyne completed his century was also more than handy.
“Sometimes I feel good, sometimes I feel a little bit off with my body,” said De Bruyne, the match-winning maestro. “I try to do the job as good as possible and today I did well.”
City’s victory did not quite fit the template of winning while playing badly; this was more a game of two halves. Their second period was full of control, poise and deadly finishing. Over then to Liverpool and Arsenal to play their hands in the three-way game of who blinks first.
The restoration to the starting lineup of Haaland and De Bruyne, both short of sharpness, had been made with Tuesday at Real Madrid in mind. So, presumably, was benching Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden, the latter rested despite his hat-trick heroics against Aston Villa. Against opponents who have regularly troubled him, Pep Guardiola eventually reaped the benefits of restoring two of his franchise players. Haaland, from close range, scored his first goal in more than a month.
“In the first half we did mistakes but we made a comeback and Kevin won the game with his actions, his assists, his goals and everything,” said Guardiola.
The excitement in Oliver Glasner’s selection came in the reappearance of Michael Olise on the bench. Palace have won only one game since his February injury. He arrived to applause with 15 minutes to play just as Rodri, improved after an uncharacteristically dodgy first half, was withdrawn, the anchorman’s exit a symbol that even Guardiola’s anxieties had abated. When Odsonne Édouard knocked in Jeffrey Schlupp’s cross with five minutes to play, there was little panic from the visitors, though Olise later whipping a trademark shot across Stefan Ortega’s goal suggested there might yet be life in the game.
In Olise’s absence, Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton have assumed creative duties. Wharton, a winter signing from Blackburn, augmented his reputation as a player with an eye for a pass with his part in Palace’s opener. After John Stones lost possession, it was Wharton’s ball that picked out Jean-Philippe Mateta to gallop beyond the City defence and beat Ortega. “We watched City and how they pressed high and I scored early against one of the biggest teams in the world,” said Mateta.
In his dugout, Guardiola raged. Not for the first time, Palace’s speed of transition had caught out his team. A dangerous player had been given a chance to shine, but 10 minutes after Mateta’s strike, the Palace goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, had no answer to De Bruyne, who shrugged off Wharton and curled the ball into the net.
The equaliser was celebrated with a blown kiss from his manager. City sought a quick second but Henderson won a one-on-one with Haaland and Palace actually looked the likelier as the first half ended. Guardiola, hands on hips, seemed exasperated at his team’s malfunctions.
In the tunnel before the second half, City’s players were deep in conversation. The one change had been the introduction of Manuel Akanji for the struggling Josko Gvardiol. “The main message was to keep on going,” said Lewis. “The chances would come. We needed to get into the box and that’s what we did.”
Instant dividends were paid as Lewis, playing in midfield, scored only his second league goal for City from Grealish’s low cross. “As a kid you dream of scoring a goal and celebrating,” he said, though some of the Holmesdale End took exception to those celebrations.
City surgically killed the game from there, cutting Palace’s supply lines. “In the second half they came back strongly,” said Mateta. Glasner elaborated: “The equaliser was too fast, and then we could see their dominance in possession.
“We needed to be more compact to win a game like that. I watched the goals and we can defend them better. Too easy.”
A becalmed Eze departed the scene with 25 minutes left, and the contest was concluded within six minutes. Grealish supplied De Bruyne to set up Haaland, and then performed a similar role for De Bruyne’s second with Rodri supplying the final pass. Job done, with rather more ease than might have been expected during those first-half flashes of worry.
