Man City 3-0 Crystal Palace: Foden shines with 2 assists to keep title hopes alive

Manchester City kept the pressure on Arsenal in the Premier League title race, moving within two points of the Gunners with a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium.

Match Report 

Exactly 14 years since Sergio Aguero's famous final-day goal handed them their first Premier League crown, City needed a victory to ensure this season's title race could not be decided in Arsenal's favour this weekend.

And despite Pep Guardiola leaving Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki out of his starting XI ahead of Saturday's FA Cup final against Chelsea, City cruised to a commanding victory.

Phil Foden was one of six players brought into Guardiola's XI, and he provided two assists within the space of eight minutes later in the first half.

After 32 relatively uneventful minutes, Foden took in Matheus Nunes' pass and produced a sublime backheel to find Antoine Semenyo, who finished neatly into the bottom-left corner.

There was perhaps an element of fortune about Foden's second assist, as he attempted to pluck Josko Gvardiol's pass out of the air and saw the ball squirm to Omar Marmoush, and the Egyptian used his body well to finish on the swivel.

The tempo dropped in the second half, though City had a couple of nervy moments as Ismaila Sarr shot straight at Gianluigi Donnarumma following an error from Bernardo Silva, while Daichi Kamada was booked for simulation inside the hosts' area.

But Savinho put some gloss on the scoreline – and inched City's goal difference one ahead of Arsenal's – in the 84th minute, slotting home after being teed up by substitute Cherki.

City will look to lift their second trophy of the season on Saturday, before turning their attentions to Arsenal's meeting with Burnley on Monday. Any slip-up from the Gunners would grant City an opportunity to go top by beating in-form Bournemouth a day later.

Data Debrief: Foden states his case

The six changes to City's line-up for this match were more than they had made ahead of their previous five Premier League games combined. And Foden took his opportunity to remind everyone – including England boss Thomas Tuchel – of his quality.

He provided two assists in a single Premier League game for the first time since December 2023 versus Sheffield United, and achieved that feat before half-time for the very first time.

Meanwhile, no player has created more chances in the first half of a Premier League match this season than Foden's five against Palace.

Guardiola did not even have to call upon Haaland from the bench, and City have now won 15 of their 19 Premier League games without the Norwegian featuring since he arrived at the Etihad at the start of 2022-23 (D2 L2).

City only hit the target with four of their 15 shots, which accumulated to 1.56 expected goals (xG), but at the other end, they held Palace to six shots (two on target) and 0.68 xG.

Match Events

31' GOAL! Man City 1-0 Crystal Palace

40' GOAL! Man City 2-0 Crystal Palace (Omar Marmoush)

83' GOAL! Man City 3-0 Crystal Palace

Line-ups

Man City XI: Bernardo Silva, Donnarumma, Foden, Omar Marmoush, Guehi, Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Matheus Nunes, Gvardiol, Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov

Subs: Kovacic, Ake, Stones, Ruben Dias, Haaland, Reijnders, James Trafford, Cherki, Doku

Crystal Palace XI: Hughes, Lerma, Dean Henderson, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Daniel Muñoz, Maxence Lacroix, Chris Richards, Yeremy, Brennan Johnson, Tyrick Mitchell, Jaydee Canvot

Subs: Clyne, Walter Benítez, Kamada, Sarr, Jørgen Strand Larsen, Chadi Riad, Justin Devenny, Adam Wharton, Rio Cardines