By JACK GAUGHAN
Published: 12:43 EST, 14 December 2025 | Updated: 12:43 EST, 14 December 2025
The Premier League’s great entertainers might have more goals than everyone else. They might score more on the counter-attack. They might plunder considerably more from open play.
Phil Foden might have six in his last four games and be dovetailing with Rayan Cherki in a way reminiscent of the division’s cult 90s midfielders. With another brace, Erling Haaland might be hurtling towards another golden boot.
But for 15 minutes or so at Selhurst Park, Manchester City had to earn their right for all of the above. To preserve what they had with a bit of humility. To take stock, to protect Gianluigi Donnarumma behind them.
Set-piece coach James French often made his way to the edge of the technical area during that period, watching how four Crystal Palace long throws – all from defender Chris Richards - were handled. And an Adam Wharton corner for good measure.
City kicked, headed and scrapped. From the final throw, Savinho carried a loose ball 80 yards, won a penalty and Haaland was soon rolling his eyes and mocking Palace chants from the Holmesdale End in celebration. That Haaland’s second came from some defensive resilience and a fast break felt right.
French, who joined from Liverpool in the summer as part of a backroom shake-up, is wholly responsible for these sorts of situations, appointed predominantly to increase the attacking output. They’re two shy of last year’s set-piece total of seven in the league after a run of goals from corners in recent weeks.
Manchester City had to scrap for the right to play at Selhurst Park on Sunday afternoon
But they eventually took the lead through an Erling Haaland header in the first-half
It was the Norwegian's 16th Premier League goal of the season - and it wasn't long before he got his 17th
At Selhurst Park though, the other direction took precedence. Given the obsession with these set plays this season, the defensive side of it is just as important for French, who watched supreme organisation led by Ruben Dias carry out instructions on how best to manage Palace.
The Portuguese controlled everybody around him imperiously. Eight clearances, four with his head, four blocks. Dias threw himself at everything as an excellent Palace, who kept pounding at the City door, went from trying to find ways of beating a courageous high line – Yerry Pino clipping the bar - to winning physical battles with airborne crosses. In the end, they managed neither well enough to deliver the sort of bloody nose City felt at Wembley in May.
‘The result doesn’t reflect the performance,’ Oliver Glasner said. ‘But we have to say that City were better in the boxes.’
That has been a hallmark of the true top City sides across Pep Guardiola’s reign, that rigid backbone readily overlooked given the flair in forward areas. They lost it last season and how City stood up to a late barrage in the Bernabeu on Wednesday and then a similar assignment south of the Thames can only be a good sign for Guardiola and one that may furrow the Mikel Arteta brow.
There have been a few wins like this – and a few in this very stadium.
‘When you win and look back on the past, you believe the past is always perfect – always brilliant, always red carpets, always it was easy’ Guardiola said.
‘When we won 100 points and all the other titles – it’s not necessary to talk about them all because it will be so boring and so late to go home… for the amount of things we achieved, we had a lot of games like today and the resilience was part of that.
‘It’s not easy with (Jean-Philippe) Mateta, with the wind, the second balls. We talked about that. We are learning a lot with these types of balls not to blow away, make the short passes and after we can run. We are improving a lot in that concept. We fought unbelievably.’
Phil Foden made it two after the interval with a long-ranged effort on his left
Before Erling Haaland eventually made it three with a penalty at the death
Pep Guardiola was full of praise for Crystal Palace post-match, admitting his City team 'fought unbelievably'
It is more than heading a few Richards throws away, or Donnarumma punching that Wharton corner (Wharton earlier struck a post). Guardiola isn’t setting his players tests on how to react in certain scenarios because the league is too tight and there is too much on every single game yet they are coming through these moments with a togetherness.
The way Bernardo Silva and Haaland punched the air inside Palace’s box when Foden found Dean Henderson’s left-hand corner from 22 yards – a Cherki assist, six for him in the league in six starts – spoke to that. It’s unquantifiable but just looks and feels different to last year and even earlier this.
Not perfect, Guardiola insists. And he’d be right. There are those gaps in midfield on transition occasionally, where Nico Gonzalez appears to be doing the work of two men.
Two trips to London and another to the Spanish capital in the space of 12 days, plus a home game with Sunderland, yielding four victories suggests that this incremental improvement, a team steadier in itself, will prove a far more difficult opponent to Arsenal than anybody truly envisaged when the season kicked off.
They could even go top for a few hours next weekend.
PLAYER RATINGS
Crystal Palace (3-4-2-1): Henderson 6; Richards 6, Lacroix 6.5, Guehi 6.5; Clyne 6 (Uche 77), Wharton 7, Kamada 7.5 (Hughes 67, 6), Mitchell 6.5; Sarr 5, Pino 7; Mateta 5 (Nketiah 63, 7)
Manager: Oliver Glasner 6
Man City (4-1-4-1): Donnarumma 7; Nunes 8, Dias 8.5, Gvardiol 8, O’Reilly 7 (Ait-Nouri 90); Gonzalez 7.5; Cherki 8, Silva 7.5 (Lewis 90), Reijnders 7 (Savinho 85), Foden 8; Haaland 8 (Marmoush 90)
Manager: Pep Guardiola 7