After Liverpool produced a win against Brighton, they simply must have said – ‘over to you Manchester City.’
Manchester City in reply to that, faulted at Palace – a team that they do not like playing against very much!
The Monday night clash between these two ended in a 0-0 draw and both the sides had their chances – man city more than Palace!
Manchester City is 4 points ahead of Liverpool but the reds have a game in hand.
City does not play in the Premier League until Liverpool has played twice. So that means potentially, Liverpool can go two points above until the Cityzens play again!
It’s riveting, exciting, as well as action-packed, and, well, it’s Premier League drama!
With each passing matchday, the clash between Liverpool and City is getting heavier and heavier in terms of importance. The Premier League does not include knockout matches, but the City-Liverpool game will be virtually like a final.
Win this and the Premier League can be yours!
But before we reach that stage, let’s speak about the catalyst that can make this virtual final-like scenario come true, let’s talk about how City dropped points at Palace for the 2nd time in the season!
Story of the match
City met an inspired Vicente Guaita, who wonderfully denied Riyad Mahrez with an incredible save just before the hour mark after Kevin De Bruyne struck the inside of the post.
It was the second time the visitors had hit the crossbar after Joao Cancelo’s speculative attempt in the first half hit the post before Aymeric Laporte blazed his rebound over.
The displeasure was mounting, and Palace, clinging tightly to the goalless result, ratcheted it up a notch with some timewasting tactics that saw Rodri angrily attempting to pick up Cheikhou Kayate as he rolled around following a harmless challenge.
In a humid City performance, De Bruyne, the only man who looked to have a clear head, advised his teammates to settle down and focus on the game.
They didn’t, and instead of wearing out the opponent, the Blues looked ragged and fatigued towards the finish as Palace increased in confidence and almost won it with a late Connor Gallagher effort.
A striker
Despite 18 shots and 46 touches in the opposition box as part of 74 percent possession, City was met by a red and blue wall and failed to score.
If this doesn’t paint the picture of Man City needing a striker, nothing will. Manchester City had so many chances that even a half-decent striker would have applied the finishing touches.
These are the games that decide titles, and these are the games where you need an instinctive striker. But Man City will have to make do until the rest of the season as Liverpool is crawling on their knees.
With talks of Erling Haaland joining the Manchester side, the Cityzens might be getting the best of the best to solve their finishing problem from next season!
“We couldn’t score and we should’ve scored,” Silva’s comments after the frustrating evening at Selhurst Park.
Despite the dropped points, Bernardo Silva feels his team has the upper hand in the Premier League title fight over Liverpool.
How true those words stand, only time will tell. Rest assured, we have a cracking Premier League title race at our hands!
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