Manchester City 4-2 Crystal Palace: Controversial refereeing decision rules 3rd Eagles goal out

Manchester City survived an early scare to beat Crystal Palace 4-2 at the Etihad.

The London-based club are a well known bogey team for the Citizens, with Pep Guardiola’s men picking up just one point from their two Premier League matches against Palace in 2021/2022.

So when the visitors rushed into an early two goal lead thanks to a John Stones own goal and a Joachim Andersen header, well, Citizens worldwide feared the worst.

But things could have deteriorated further for City when, in the 27th minute, Ederson collected the ball in his area and looked to distribute quickly to Kevin de Bruyne.

The Brazilian, though, when attempting to roll the ball to his teammate, failed to account for the lurking Odsonne Edouard, who cheekily intercepted the move and allowed teammate Jordan Ayew to tap home.

The goal would have put Palace 3-0 up within half an hour, but referee Graham Scott ruled for a foul on the part of Edouard to the disbelief of Palace players and fans alike.

Watching the clip back, it’s clear that Scott believed Edouard came into contact with the ball prior to it leaving Ederson’s hand.

Although whether it did or not remains quite a mystery for many fans on social media, with many likening the incident to the Karim Benzema/Loris Karius scenario of the 2018 Champions League final.

Check the incident out for yourself below and just keep in mind, a hammer-blow third goal might have been enough to knock the wind out of City and stifle the comeback we later saw materialise.

How is this a foul??? Ederson shouldn’t roll the ball out with a bloke in front of him if he doesn’t want it blocked #MCICRY pic.twitter.com/AieFW87zF6

We can’t quite work out whether the goal should have stood ourselves to be quite honest,