10-man Manchester City suffer another shocking defeat

10-man Manchester City suffer another shocking defeat

Safiu Kehinde

It was a haunting weekend for Premier League giant, Manchester City as they suffered another defeat in the hands of Crystal Palace who thrashed them with two goals to nil at the Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola’s side had earlier this week got ousted from the EFL cup after West Ham United beat the reigning champion in a penalty shootout.

The star-studded squad hoped to set things straight this weekend, only for Crystal Palace to add salt to their injury via goals from Wilfred Zaha and Chelsea loanee, Conor Gallagher.

As usual, Man City took dominance of the match with 65% possession in the first twenty minutes. They mounted pressure on the away team as expected — with Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus finding their way through Crystal Palace’s watertight defense. But the visitors were already a step ahead of the Cityzen when Wilfred Zaha struck past City’s goalkeeper, Ederson Moraes in the sixth minutes of the game.

Pep Guardiola’s 200th game in charge went from bad to worse after Aymeric Laporte got sent off in the final minute of the first half due to a bad tackle on Crystal Palace’s forward, Wilfred Zaha. The City’s gaffer was unimpressed with his team who conceded their first Premier League goal at home all season.

The second half was not short of Man City’s threat despite the red card. They were so desperate for an equalizer which they almost found when Gabriel Jesus struck the net in the 60th minutes. But a possible offside led to VAR’s intervention and eventually, the goal was cancelled.

Frustration kept piling up at the Etihad Stadium, leading to fans vacating the stadium as Conor Gallagher sealed City’s fate with another goal.

In a related development, Liverpool narrowly missed closing the gap between them and Chelsea at Anfield as they were held in a 2-2 draw by stubborn Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea, on the other hand, outwitted Newcastle with 3 goals- two from Reece James and one from Jorginho.

As the table currently stands, Man City sits third with five points behind 1st placed Chelsea and just three points ahead of this season’s wonder, West Ham United who are 4th on the Premier League table. Liverpool clings to the 2nd position, 3 points behind Chelsea and 2 points ahead of Man City.

editor

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