{"id":350403,"date":"2025-12-15T22:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350403\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T22:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:13:11","slug":"three-things-we-learned-crystal-palace-0-3-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350403\/","title":{"rendered":"Three things we learned – Crystal Palace 0-3 Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester City ran out as comfortable winners against Crystal Palace to apply pressure to Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table.<\/p>\n

Erling Haaland scored twice and Phil Foden netted once for City, who controlled proceedings from start to finish.<\/p>\n

Despite having Ismailla Sarr and Jean-Phillipe Mateta available after injury, the hosts struggled to provide much of an offensive threat particularly after the break.<\/p>\n

Haaland had given City the lead before half time with a powerful header from a good Matheus Nunes cross, before Foden doubled the lead with a crisp strike from the edge of the box after tremendous work from Rayan Cherki.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian striker completed the rout in injury time as he sent Dean Henderson the wrong way from the penalty spot, after Savinho was fouled when through on goal.<\/p>\n

The win at Selhurst Park moves City to within two points of leaders Arsenal, and means Palace missed the opportunity to move into the top four.<\/p>\n

Here are three things we learned as City took all three points in London:<\/p>\n

The attack can function without Doku<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/a><\/p>\n

LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 14: Phil Foden celebrate with Rayan Cherki and R\u00faben Dias of Manchester City after scoring a goal during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at Selhurst Park on December 14, 2025 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Sebastian Frej\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was a big blow to see Jeremy Doku not even on the bench when the lineups dropped, but you can\u2019t honestly say City missed him at any point after the first goal was scored.<\/p>\n

The first half set up was odd, with Josko Gvardiol at left centre back pushing really high and Nico Gonzalez filling in for him. Matheus Nunes sat deep, leaving Cherki to hold width on the right hand side. Hugging the touchline is not the Frenchman\u2019s game at all.<\/p>\n

But after the first goal, there was more fluidity of movement with Cherki, Foden, Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders all interchanging behind Haaland up front.<\/p>\n

Cherki and Foden combined for the second goal, whilst substitute Savinho won the penalty very well for the third and final goal of the game.<\/p>\n

Doku will be sorely missed if his injury is to be anything serious, but the rest of the attacking talent that City employ is good enough to compensate for his absence.<\/p>\n

Rest is needed across the next two games<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/a><\/p>\n

LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 14: Bernardo Silva of Manchester City looks on after the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at Selhurst Park on December 14, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images Getty Images<\/p>\n

But this team can\u2019t keep on playing as often as it is.<\/p>\n

Every player from the XI that started yesterday has also started most of City\u2019s games from the resumption of play after the international break.<\/p>\n

The likes of Savinho, Nathan Ake, Oscar Bobb and Abdukodir Khusanov have hardly had a look in, and Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri won\u2019t for another six weeks as they go to represent Egypt and Algeria respectively at the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n

The next two games are both at the Etihad Stadium against opposition that City should be expected to beat; Brentford in the Carabao Cup quarter final and West Ham United in the league.<\/p>\n

I expect those games will be used to give most, if not all, of the first team players a chance to rest ahead of the busy Christmas and new year period.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re no longer reliant on Haaland – but him scoring goals helps<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/a><\/p>\n

LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 14: Erling Haland of Manchester City celebrates after scoring during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Manchester City at Selhurst Park on December 14, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Vince Mignott\/MB Media\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

Back at the start of the season if Haaland wasn\u2019t firing, it looked tricky to see where City might grab their goals from.<\/p>\n

As it is now, there are plenty of candidates.<\/p>\n

Foden is joint third in the Premier League scoring charts after yet another goal against Palace. Doku has taken a step up and whilst Cherki isn\u2019t providing goals, he\u2019s certainly chipping in as the Premier League\u2019s top assister so far this season.<\/p>\n

Reijnders has the ability to contribute more but clearly needs time to settle after a stunning debut, whilst both centre backs have scored a few goals recently too.<\/p>\n

And of course, Haaland is continuing to score at an astonishing level. 36 goals for club and country before Christmas is unprecedented if your name isn\u2019t Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, and right now, he is playing at their level.<\/p>\n

Whilst he keeps scoring and the other attackers carry on supporting him, there\u2019s no reason why City can\u2019t go on to win the biggest trophies this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City ran out as comfortable winners against Crystal Palace to apply pressure to Arsenal at the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,192938,192939,85],"class_list":["post-350403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-manchester-city-match-recaps","tag-manchester-city-premier-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}