Man City implode to hand Arsenal and Liverpool FC Premier League advantage

Pep Guardiola's warnings weren't enough.

They should have been, and Manchester City should have been more than good enough to beat a depleted Crystal Palace side. But these are strange times at the Etihad, with the team that never let leads slip slowly becoming awkwardly bad at one of their biggest strengths.

The Premier League champions added Rico Lewis's second-half strike to Jack Grealish's opener to take complete control of a game they would have sailed through in years past. Instead, they imploded in the final 20 minutes with Phil Foden undoing his earlier good work to give away a stoppage time penalty to allow Michael Olise to complete an unlikely comeback after Jean-Phillipe Mateta had halved the deficit.

ALSO READ: Man City player ratings vs Crystal Palace

ALSO READ: Man City collapse against Palace as it happened

The result could not have been better for an injury-ravaged Palace, who set their stall out early with Bernardo Silva protesting about timewasting in just the third minute. Shorn of their full-strength side and losing Joel Ward in the first half, the visitors planned to make things as difficult as possible for City to play with any fluency.

Tactics ranged from taking an age over goal-kicks to deciding that balls placed closer to the fans were better to take throw-ins than the ones conveniently in their hands. It had some success too, with the home team dominating possession yet unable to convert that into goals as they missed the injured Erling Haaland for a third successive game.

City were, though, giving themselves every chance of winning by utilising the ball boys whenever it was their throw. Ball swaps and speedy responses to calls meant those running the touchline were able to get the game