Crystal Palace were so close to pulling off a massive upset. Erling Haaland’s first Manchester City hattrick propelled City into a two-goal comeback as they defeated Crystal Palace 4-2.
I really thought that Crystal Palace was going to prove their title as “Cityslayers” by beating Manchester City once again under Pep Guardiola’s reign. Aside from Liverpool, out of all the Premier League teams that Pep Guardiola has faced, Crystal Palace has to rank as one of the toughest.
Palace not only beat Manchester City away last season, but also went undefeated against the eventual champions as they drew the other game at Selhurst Park.
Moreover, does anyone remember Palace’s famous 2-1 victory over City during their 2018/19 title-winning season. That was only one of four losses City suffered that campaign all year long.
Obviously, Palace have had City’s number these past few years under Pep, and it looked like they were going to strike again as they got off to the early start in this game. On what seemed like a tame free kick into City’s box, the ball wound up ricocheting off Kevin De Bruyne’s head, onto Kyle Walker’s side, then smacked against John Stone’s knee/calf to bounce past Ederson and into the net, giving Palace the lead only six minutes into the game. And they didn’t stop there.
Palace struck on yet another set piece, this time a corner, as Joachim Andersen thumped home a wide open, rocket header to score his first Premier League goal for Crystal Palace and put them up by two at the Etihad. Needless to say, the City fans, Pep Guardiola, and myself were all stunned watching Palace score with ease.
Going into halftime, I thought that Palace was going to get another over on Pep. Sure, City were dominating the game, especially possession and passing as they ended up controlling 75% of the ball and had 770 completed passes, but they really weren’t getting too many chances on Vincente Guiata’s net. Surprisingly, the Palace defenders were holding City at bay and continued to do so after halftime until…Erling Haaland happened.
Just as City always seems to do (unless they’re playing in the Champions League), they found a way to comeback through the skills of one of their stars. This time it ended up being Erling Haaland.
After Bernado Silva scored to make it a 2-1, Haaland took over the game as he scored a dominating hattrick that should send shockwaves all across the league. His first goal came off a brilliant cross from Phil Foden, who magnetically curled it around three Palace defender to deliver a pinpoint ball onto Haaland’s head.
That goal really took the life out of Palace as they quickly conceded City’s third, and Haaland’s second, only seven minutes later as Erling Haaland tapped a John Stones’ miskick into an open goal. I bet John Stones was the first one to celebrate with Haaland as he completely whiffed on his shot right in front of the Palace net.
Anyway, Haaland proved why he’s one of the world’s very best strikers on his hattrick-sealing goal as took a through ball in his stride, fought off two Palace defenders at the same time, somehow kept control of the ball, and calmly slide it past an oncoming Vincente Guiata to seal the game for City.
If I wasn’t rooting against Manchester City (as being a United fan tends to make me do that), then I would have given Haaland a standing ovation for that goal. How many other forwards in the world today, let alone the Premier League, can pull off a goal like that? Kylian Mbappe, Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski, Neymar, and Karim Benzema all come to mind, but who else? If you’re thought of in that category of strikers, you’re obviously doing something right.
And Haaland is as he continues his rocket-like scoring trajectory with that goal today. It was just that good.
It’s remarkable how he’s seamlessly transitioned from the Bundesliga to the Premier League as he now has 6 goals in just 4 games with the Citizens. How can he not be everyone’s favorite to win the Golden Boot? He is mine.
As for Palace, they gave a good effort, but just came up short. They were never going to outplay Man City, so they wisely didn’t try to. Essentially, they gambled that they could hold off Haaland and Co. but lost.
There’s nothing they really can do about this loss, other than holding their heads up high and moving on to their next game against Brentford.
Even though Liverpool destroyed AFC Bournemouth today, I still don’t see any other team than Manchester City winning the Premier League title this season. It’s truly remarkable how Pep Guardiola can transform and morph his systems and tactics to adapt to the players he has, and still get them to play title-winning football. The man is a genius, plain and simple.
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