Match Report: City Move Five Points Clear with Late Palace Win
Manchester City extended their lead at the top of the table to five points after Kelechi Iheanacho came off the bench to score the winner in the dying embers of their 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Iheanacho introduction was met by cries of “who?” by the Palace supporters, but they were made to rue their decision to mock Manuel Pellegrini’s late substitution when the 18-year-old was quickest to react to Alex McCarthy’s save yto tap home with his first touch of the game.
Incredibly, City are now 11 points clear of defending champions Chelsea, who themselves slipped to their third defeat of the season at the hands of Everton in the weekend’s early kick-off.
However, City’s victory has come at a premium with Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero joining David Silva as major doubts for their Champions League encounter with Juventus on Tuesday.
Silva had already been ruled out of contention for their trip to London after returning from international duty with an ankle problem, but matters were made worse when Sterling limped out of Saturday’s warm-up with a minor hamstring problem before Aguero was unable to continue after a heavy tackle from Scott Dann.
In the wake of their defeat, Palace manager Alan Pardew admitted the manner of their loss “hurt” his team. The Eagles went into the international break in second, chasing their best start to a top-flight campaign in 23 years and they enjoyed large parts of the game on the front foot.
Yannick Bolasie, who played up front in the absence of Conor Wickham, looked particularly menacing when Alexander Kolarov was caught out of position, but could only manage to test Joe Hart with one of his three shots. The 26-year-old is still searching for his first league goal at Selhurst Park since January 2013.
It was City - a team that have scored more goals than any team in the Premier League this season (11) – that started sluggishly. Pellegrini resisted the temptation to hand his new £58m summer signing Kevin de Bruyne a starting berth, instead opting for a 4-4-2 system with Wilfried Bony partnering Aguero in attack.
The former Chelsea midfielder would have his debut after just 25 minutes when Aguero limped off with a knee injury picked up from a forceful Dann tackle just minutes earlier. De Bruyne’s influence was one that was packed with promise. The Belgium international made at least two key passes more than any other player (5) during his time on the pitch and also forced McCarthy into a smart save.
The ex-Wolfsburg playmaker should also have had an assist to his name when his smart pass released Jesus Navas through on goal, but the winger could only flash wide after rounding the keeper. Since the start of last season no player has had more shots on goal without scoring than Navas (52).
However, it was not to be Navas nor De Bruyne or any of the multi million pound talent at their disposal that supplied the winner. In fact, it was a product of their youth academy.
As time ticked on it didn’t look like City would find a way through Palace’s resilient backline, which had been patched up with Damian Delany and Joel Ward absent. With De Bruyne already on the pitch Pellegrini could only turn to a trio of teenagers - the eldest 18 - in an attempt to change the game.
The City manager turned to Iheanacho with just two minutes of normal time remaining and the striker, who Pellegrini would latter add is “a very important player for the future”, delivered with his first touch, reacting quickest to Samir Nasri’s spilled effort.
The 18-year-old could have had a second in time added on when Yaya Toure unselfishly tried to tee the teenager up, but he was thwarted by two last-ditch challenges from Palace defenders.
Despite there being 33 games of the season remaining it is hard to see where City’s title charge will falter, particularly as their main rivals are already doing that themselves.
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