By Ethan Aspinall, Mon 15 December 2025 13:18
Crystal Palace 0 Manchester City 3: match reportHaaland scores a brace and Foden scores as City keep the pressure on Arsenal with win away at Palace
Manchester City defeated Crystal Palace 3-0 to stay two points away from Arsenal at the top of the table. The result marks the fifth win in a row for the Blues in all competitions. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Gvardiol, Dias, and O’Reilly were in defence. Gonzalez, Reijnders, and Bernardo were in midfield with Foden, Cherki, and Haaland in attack. Jeremy Doku was absent from the squad, having reportedly sustained a leg injury.
Crystal Palace started the game better, having a range of chances to get themselves in front, notably with Yeremy Pino hitting the bar early on in the game as well as a chance for Sarr 1v1 with Donnarumma, but the goalkeeper made a well-timed challenge to push the threat away.
Despite the early onslaught from the home side, the Blues kept composed and virtually out of nowhere managed to get themselves in front after a cross in from Nunes found Haaland, who headed it past the reach of Henderson to make it 1-0 and put City in control before halftime.
In the second half following City’s first goal, the Blues were more in control but Palace did have their chances to equalise, with Wharton hitting the post and multiple other efforts that went begging but City’s defence managed to stay firm and keep the Palace players out. In the 68th minute, Cherki had the ball and dribbled through three or four Palace players with ease before laying it off to Foden who struck the ball into the bottom right corner to double City’s advantage. Despite having less big chances, the Blues were more clinical and were rewarded for this.
Palace continued to try and salvage something out of the match, but their lack of finishing let them down on this occasion and in the 89th minute, the Eagles were dispossessed in City’s box after a clearance led to Savio receiving the ball and accelerating away until he was 1v1 with Henderson. The Brazilian winger attempted to dribble the ball round the goalkeeper but was brought down in doing so and the referee immediately pointed to the spot for a City penalty. Henderson was booked for the challenge. Haaland stepped up and sent Henderson the wrong way to cap off a brilliant victory for the Blues at Selhurst park.
With the victory, City remain 2 points off Arsenal, who only just managed to defeat bottom of the table Wolves 2-1 in their game on Saturday evening. The Blues will hope that with continued pressure, cracks will continue to appear in this Arsenal side but know they will need to be careful to not be complacent themselves and will focus on getting the job done in their fixtures, with West Ham at home next in the League.
Latest News
Search
Archives