Crystal Palace frustrate Manchester City again to throw title race wide open

Game on. Pep Guardiola had warned earlier this month that Manchester City were enjoying a “fake lead” at the top and now their cushion will be cut to a single point if Liverpool win at Arsenal on Wednesday. The race is on and, should City blow it, they may look back on this as the occasion things turned.

This was a rare off-night against an intelligent, punchy Crystal Palace side; City had the chances to win, especially during a purple patch in the first half, but came away goalless from an away fixture for the first time since the opening weekend defeat at Tottenham. It may cost them but anyone wanting a genuine contest over the season’s remainder will now feel enriched.

The hope that Jürgen Klopp, presumably a more than interested spectator, could hold at the outset was that Palace had done a number on City before. Their 2-0 win at the Etihad in October, helped by Aymeric Laporte’s red card halfway through, was one of the last times the champions showed any significant weakness: City had only dropped five points since then, breeding little hope that lightning might strike twice.

Nonetheless Palace showed an appetite to ask questions with some fierce pressing in the opening moments, led in particular by Conor Gallagher. It was the snappy Gallagher who, 10 minutes in, dispossessed Laporte and broke into space but overhit his pass left to an open Wilfried Zaha. City had probed in their standard fashion until then but, aside from a sublime first-time pass from Phil Foden that almost released Bernardo Silva, had not overly threatened to lock proceedings down early on.

Instead they continued to struggle when harried. Zaha forced Kyle Walker into an error that allowed Jean-Philippe Mateta to feed Michael Olise, whose