London - Manchester City's Premier League
title defence is in tatters after a surprise 2-1
defeat at Crystal Palace left the champions
nine points adrift of leaders Chelsea on
Monday.
Manuel Pellegrini's side were rocked as
Glenn Murray's first half goal and Jason
Puncheon's excellent free kick immediately
after the restart gave Palace the cushion
they needed to withstand late pressure after
Yaya Toure had given City hope with a 78th
minute strike.
City's third successive away league defeat,
their fifth loss in their last seven games in
all competitions, leaves them languishing in
fourth place with Chelsea also having a
game in hand on them.
Their predicament was simply summed up
by Pellegrini before this game when City's
manager admitted his side needed a perfect
end to the season and a Chelsea stumble to
regain pole position.
Yet while Pellegrini has had his eyes set on
tracking down the leaders, the weekend
victories for Arsenal and Manchester United
confirmed City are now in a testing battle to
finish in the top three, which guarantees a
place in next season's Champions League
group stage
In the circumstances, next weekend's
Manchester derby has assumed even more
significance than usual.
"For today I'm very happy with the way the
team played, but I'm very disappointed with
the score," Pellegrini said.
"All we can do is try to add the most amount
of points we can and we will see who is
first, second, third and fourth."
If City were to avoid becoming the latest
side to fall victim to Alan Pardew's
rejuvenated Palace team, they would have to
maintain high standards at both ends of the
pitch.
Sergio Aguero's first half display suggested
he was more than capable of providing a
cutting edge in front of goal but it was at
the back where Pellegrini's side were found
wanting.
City have made a habit of conceding costly
goals this season with Pellegrini failing to
settle on a convincing and consistent back-
four.
There was an early sign Palace were capable
of troubling the visitors when Martin Kelly's
low cross should have been met with a
better finish than Wilfried Zaha's skied
effort after just two minutes.
But much worse was to come 10 minutes
before the end of the first half when Murray
made the breakthrough while the visitors
appealed for offside.
Prior to that moment, Pellegrini's team had
looked in control, with Aguero striking the
woodwork with a smart snapshot after
creating space on the edge of the Palace
area.
That came after the Argentina forward's
pace had allowed him to collect Joe Hart's
long clearance and set up David Silva, who
was denied only by Julian Speroni's
excellent save.
But those efforts counted for nothing in the
34th minute when City failed to deal with a
clipped ball into the box from Joel Ward
after a harmless looking corner had been
cleared.
The visitors were convinced first that Scott
Dann was offside as he moved onto Ward's
ball in and fired a volley that deflected off
Hart, and then questioned whether Murray
had strayed beyond the defence as he
followed in to score from close range.
Referee Michael Oliver and his assistants
were unmoved by the protests that
continued at the break, with City captain
Vincent Kompany continuing to make his
feelings known.
It did mean, however, that Palace had a
foothold in the game and they have
demonstrated impressive tenacity in recent
weeks.
It was clear City faced a testing challenge to
get back into the game but the task facing
them grew even more daunting when
Puncheon added the second goal three
minutes after the restart.
Once again the visitors did themselves no
favours with Fernandinho producing an
unnecessary foul to halt Murray just outside
his own area, handing Puncheon the
opportunity to lift an excellent free-kick
over the defensive wall and beyond Hart.
City were convinced they should have had a
penalty when Murray appeared to handle
and Toure's powerful shot provided them
with a late lift but they were unable to find
an equaliser.

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