Some storms take longer to clear than others and the one battering Manchester City is evidently not ready to move on just yet.
They have had worse days than this lately, but that is scant consolation in the analysis of a game when Pep Guardiola’s lost souls twice trailed a relegation contender and concluded a meandering performance with only 10 men.
If the hope was that a home win against Nottingham Forest would serve as a smelling salt beneath a broken nose, then how very misplaced it was. As we have seen so often in this sorry trudge of a season, the champions were a mess of errors. Of indecisive attacks. Of frail confidence and shot nerves.
Once again, questions will be asked of Kyle Walker. He played Daniel Munoz onside when Crystal Palace went 1-0 up and his mitigation there, slim as it is, is that three other men also had fingerprints on the problem. The second goal gave less opportunity to share blame – his marking of Maxence Lacroix was awfully slack.
But let’s give something to City, and this is a strange sign of the times, because they did not lose. Erling Haaland gave them the first of their equalisers, and its creation talks to the value of Kevin De Bruyne, and Rico Lewis got the goal for 2-2. It was a beauty, too, only to be undone by the late lunge that saw him shown a second yellow card.
It was that kind of day for City and it has been that kind of season. Every step forward comes with at least one in the opposite direction, and so this stinking patch of form now reads six defeats, two draws, one win and 21 goals conceded in nine games across the competitions. Guardiola is a genius who currently seems unable to find a solution.
Pep Guardiola’s side were held to a 2-2 draw by Crystal Palace on Saturday to continue their poor run
Rico Lewis was shown a second yellow card late in the game to make City’s task even harder
Oliver Glasner’s side have now drawn seven games this season with only two victories so far
We can talk about the injuries and the absences of Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji here, along with so many others, play to that point. It is one supported by what City had on their bench – two goalkeepers and six men of 22 or younger.
But struggling at Crystal Palace, even a moderately resurgent Crystal Palace, will always feel jarring.
City’s difficulties started early. Very early. Within the opening 10 seconds, actually, when Josko Gvardiol lost the flight of a high ball into the wind and momentarily took his eye off Jean-Philippe Mateta as well.
With a better bounce, it might have led to a one-on-one but instead the attack dissipated into a warning for a side whose slow starts are now established as a recurring theme.
That was underlined when Munoz put Palace ahead after four minutes – it was the seventh time City have conceded in the opening quarter of an hour. As with so many of them, this was one could be traced to a number of mistakes.
Primarily, we would say Stefan Ortega should have done better with Munoz’s strike, which was driven low across the keeper and squirmed under his hand. A stronger wrist would have kept it out so some criticism would be fair. So too for Kyle Walker, who played him fractionally onside from the opposite wing.
And yet the greater concern for Guardiola will be the common sight of his men failing to pick up runners.
That happened against Tottenham, Bournemouth and Feyenoord, among others, and it occurred again here, with neither Rico Lewis nor Matheus Nunes going with Munoz when he jogged unattended into space between them and waited for Will Hughes to play the killer ball from the middle of the pitch. The pass was a good one, but Guardiola has seen that movie too many times for any surprise around the outcome.
Daniel Munoz opened the scoring after just four minutes as the hosts made a quick start
Erling Haaland then equalised with a looping header on the half hour to draw City level again
Within 11 minutes of the restart, though, Maxence Lacroix put the hosts’ noses back in front
Lewis ensured City would leave south London with at least a point as City got back on level terms again
Haaland’s 13th goal of the season came courtesy of another assist from Kevin De Bruyne
His irritation on the sideline was clear and would only grow throughout a half when so much of City’s play was sloppy.
By the time of the goal, Nunes had already ballooned a cross directly out of play, and not long after Munoz’s breakthrough, Ortega almost gifted Palace a second by spilling a catch into Ebrechi Eze’s path. Coupled with Lewis’s struggles to juggle two roles as a left-back off the ball and a midfielder on it, Guardiola might have benefited from a pair of scratch mitts.
We shouldn’t overlook Palace in all of this. Goodness no. They were pressing City into losing possession and when the ball was coughed up, the counters were rapid.
Eze and Jefferson Lerma would have been beneficiaries, but Ruben Dias blocked their attempts – he was City’s standout defender by a distance – and Ismaila Sarr also launched over the bar when Guardiola’s defence struggled to handle a corner. The champions were hanging on but out of such a precarious situation, they came alive.
First, Ilkay Gundogan cracked a volley against the post and then Haaland collected his 13th goal of the season. De Buyne always brings the best out of him, and having already put one chance on a plate for the Norwegian – brilliantly saved by Henderson – he swung in a delightful cross for the equaliser. The header, looped over Henderson, was even better than the delivery.
City were more stable after the break. More dependable. Less prone to gaffes. But then, just as some momentum was in their favour, they gave away the lead again, this time to a set-piece and another Walker error. The corner from Hughes came in hard and with a wicked, in-swinging curve, but Walker’s efforts to jump with Lacroix were dismal.
It took City 26 minutes to level first time round; their second took around half as long. The move was slick, with a rapid interchange between Gundogan, De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva deep in Palace territory before the latter fed Lewis. Instead of taking a touch, he drilled into the top corner.
That was quickly booked for a foul after the restart only took on extra relevance when he was then sent off five minutes from time for lunging in on Trevoh Chalobah. That’s just the way it goes for City right now.
