City Continue Hot Run of Form with Win at Selhurst Park
Amar Zukancic
Unfortunately for all of us we had to look at that monstrosity of a kit again, but fortunately for all of us we got to watch Manchester City Football Club play football again. City were back in action in the Premier League on Saturday in southeast London against Crystal Palace. This has always been a tricky fixture for City going back to them ending our 18 match winning streak on New Years Eve during the Centurion season, and as recent as the FA Cup Final last season where they took the trophy away from us. It was a game that as Haaland mentioned in his post match interview after the Madrid match, was going to be a tough match to win. Despite a very strong start from the hosts, City managed to leave with 3 goals and 3 points from Selhurst Park.
The match was similar to Madrid in the week in that it was all the hosts. Palace were running rampant over us and we couldn't string together any semblance of meaningful attacking football to save our lives. The only chance we had in the first 40 minutes was a freekick from the edge of the box which Foden nearly snuck in, but Henderson managed to keep it out. Donnarumma, Nunes, Gvardiol, and Dias saved us those first 40 minutes and luckily we held strong and didn't manage to gift them a goal. Then after 40 minutes Bernardo and Nunes exchanged a few passes outside of the box, then Nunes sent in a beautiful cross that found the head of Erling Haaland and then the back of the net. It was eerily similar to the goal they combined for a month ago vs Liverpool, and nonetheless it had the same result and put us 1-0 up. The second half started much better for us than the first, and after 69 minutes Rayan Cherki made a surging run towards the Palace goal. He managed to pawn the ball off to Foden who slotted the ball home from 20 yards out to double our lead, continuing his blistering form making it 6 goals in his last 4 Premier League matches. Foden now has 99 Premier League goal contributions in his career, having 68 goals and 31 assists. The game died after that and a few moments after being subbed on, Savinho beautifully pounced on an errant pass and won us a penalty. Haaland stroked it home identically to his penalty against Madrid for his 36th this season for club and country, and it's not even Christmas.
This wasn't our best performance by far, but it's one we'll take. They won't all be pretty, but the most important thing is that we've won 4 in a row in the league scoring 14 in the process, and are applying the pressure on The Gooners. We can't complain and be worried about not winning convincingly, when this is still a team and club with championship DNA. Yes it's a “new side” that's been “rebuilt”, but it’s still Pep, Bernardo, Stones, Dias, Foden, Rodri, Donnarumma, and the entire staff and administration. We are still the top dogs in the league and the team with the most experience of winning, and we’re the ones who have control of this title race even if we’re not in first. Nunes and Dias were the two standouts for me today. Dias like I said in the Madrid review, it back to his best. He is an absolutely colossal player, and every time he plays with this sort of form you can't take your eyes off of him. He is one of the few defenders where when he is on form, no matter who he's playing with he's the best player on the pitch. Think of the PSG match in 20/21, or the Champions League Final vs Inter, he was always the standout player. It is imperative to have a world class on form center halve if you want success in this sport, and Ruben being back does just that for us. Nunes on the other hand, once again amazing. I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about him. Last season to me he was the worst player in club history and I hated him more than any player, but this year he proved me wrong. He hasn't had a bad performance in months, and has been one of the best right backs in the world. Yes he's had bad moments, but bad games? No. His best attributes shine at right back as an extremely fast and strong player which helps him recover at an elite level, and his spectacular crossing. He is one of the best crossers of a ball i’ve ever seen, and he seems to be farming assists through that. He’s defending well, scoring goals, getting assists, and keeping the game moving with a good flow and pace. Nunes has proved every City fan wrong, and although he still may not be the long term solution for the RB position he is more than capable of becoming that.
Overall you can't be bad at the performance. We went to a stadium that we’ve struggled at against a team we've struggled against the past few years, and left with a 3-0 win. The team really seems to be in a rhythm now. Since the back to back losses after the break, we've won our matches 3-2, 5-4, 3-0, 2-1, and 3-0. We’re farming wins again, Haaland is scoring, Foden is scoring, Cherki is assisting, and Dias and Josko are a rock at the back. Unfortunately Marmoush and Ait-Nouri are gone now for the foreseeable future because of AFCON, but they both never really got their seasons started because of injury so it won't be anything other than losing depth. The Doku injury is worrying if it's long term, but it should all be fine. There was a noticeable lack of threat and penetration today, and that was all down to Doku being out of the squad. This week we’re hosting a big Carabao Cup Quarterfinal against Brentford. We used to win this trophy like it was nothing but now haven't won it since the 2020/21 season. Hopefully we can break this drought and take this match seriously enough to get to Wembley in March. After that we start the December gauntlet of 5 successive Premier League matches starting with hosting West Ham next weekend.
Unfortunately for all of us we had to look at that monstrosity of a kit again, but fortunately for all of us we got to watch Manchester City Football Club play football again. City were back in action in the Premier League on Saturday in southeast London against Crystal Palace. This has always been a tricky fixture for City going back to them ending our 18 match winning streak on New Years Eve during the Centurion season, and as recent as the FA Cup Final last season where they took the trophy away from us. It was a game that as Haaland mentioned in his post match interview after the Madrid match, was going to be a tough match to win. Despite a very strong start from the hosts, City managed to leave with 3 goals and 3 points from Selhurst Park.
This wasn't our best performance by far, but it's one we'll take. They won't all be pretty, but the most important thing is that we've won 4 in a row in the league scoring 14 in the process, and are applying the pressure on The Gooners. We can't complain and be worried about not winning convincingly, when this is still a team and club with championship DNA. Yes it's a “new side” that's been “rebuilt”, but it’s still Pep, Bernardo, Stones, Dias, Foden, Rodri, Donnarumma, and the entire staff and administration. We are still the top dogs in the league and the team with the most experience of winning, and we’re the ones who have control of this title race even if we’re not in first. Nunes and Dias were the two standouts for me today. Dias like I said in the Madrid review, it back to his best. He is an absolutely colossal player, and every time he plays with this sort of form you can't take your eyes off of him. He is one of the few defenders where when he is on form, no matter who he's playing with he's the best player on the pitch. Think of the PSG match in 20/21, or the Champions League Final vs Inter, he was always the standout player. It is imperative to have a world class on form center halve if you want success in this sport, and Ruben being back does just that for us. Nunes on the other hand, once again amazing. I will be the first to admit that I was wrong about him. Last season to me he was the worst player in club history and I hated him more than any player, but this year he proved me wrong. He hasn't had a bad performance in months, and has been one of the best right backs in the world. Yes he's had bad moments, but bad games? No. His best attributes shine at right back as an extremely fast and strong player which helps him recover at an elite level, and his spectacular crossing. He is one of the best crossers of a ball i’ve ever seen, and he seems to be farming assists through that. He’s defending well, scoring goals, getting assists, and keeping the game moving with a good flow and pace. Nunes has proved every City fan wrong, and although he still may not be the long term solution for the RB position he is more than capable of becoming that.
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