Man City thrash Crystal Palace to move two points behind leaders Arsenal

Omar Marmoush scores Man City's second goal
Omar Marmoush scores Man City's second goalAction Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

Manchester City kept their fragile Premier League (PL) title hopes alive with a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace. Despite ringing the changes ahead of the weekend’s FA Cup final, Pep Guardiola extended his side’s unbeaten run at home to 17 games and moved within two points of Arsenal with two games left to play.

Key stats

- Man City are undefeated in their last 14 games in the Premier League, their last longer unbeaten streak was from 10th December 2023 to 26th October 2024, a run of 32 games.

- Crystal Palace have failed to win in their last five games in the Premier League, their last longer winless streak was from 14th December 2025 to 1st February 2026, a run of nine games.

- Man City have kept a clean sheet in 16 of their 36 games, only Arsenal (18) have done this more often in the Premier League this season.

Highlights

Analysis

Match momentum
Match momentumOpta by StatsPerform

Manchester City dominated the match for long periods and keep their title hopes alive with a +43 goal difference compared to Arsenal's +42, with two league games to go.

Man of the match Phil Foden assisted both first half goals and created five chances in a blistering half. No player has created more in the first 45 minutes of a Premier League match this season.

Match stats
Match statsOpta by StatsPerform

Match report

There was an early warning for the hosts when Brennan Johnson darted in behind, squaring for Jean-Philippe Mateta to fire at goal.

Gianluigi Donnarumma reacted quickly to claw the ball away, although the striker’s call for the referee to check his watch for a signal from goal-line technology might have been interesting had the flag not belatedly gone up for offside from the initial pass. 

No such flag came to the Cityzens’ rescue a little later on, and that responsibility fell to Joško Gvardiol instead, as he was in the right place to block Yéremy Pino’s effort behind.

As expected, Guardiola’s side dominated possession, but clear-cut chances proved hard to come by as the half wore on.

However, that changed just beyond the half-hour mark, when Phil Foden suddenly quickened the pace with a clever backheel, freeing Antoine Semenyo to fire past Dean Henderson.

That opened up the contest, and Man City added a second before HT, with Omar Marmoush this time the beneficiary of another Foden assist. The Eagles were hanging on by this point, and Henderson had to be at his best to stop Gvardiol making it three.

It was a similar story after the break, although Man City had little need to force the issue, and Oliver Glasner was the one to summon his heavy-hitting reinforcements.

While Erling Haaland stayed on the home bench for the full 90 minutes, Palace introduced Adam Wharton, Jørgen Strand Larsen, and Ismaïla Sarr, and the latter wasted little time in testing Donnarumma.

Even so, the trio could not significantly alter the pattern of the game, and Savinho put the contest beyond all doubt in the 84th minute after a lovely assist from substitute Rayan Cherki.

Crystal Palace now have just one win from their last seven PL games, with attention having firmly turned to the UEFA Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano.

Man City’s next assignment is the FA Cup final against Chelsea, but half an eye will remain on the league, with this victory leaving them well-placed to capitalise on any slip-ups from the Gunners thanks to a superior goal difference.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Phil Foden (Manchester City)

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