The pain of losing a hard-won point right at the death is not a new one but it never gets any better with experience. Palace showed that they could go toe-to-toe with the big boys (wouldn’t it be easier for City if they replaced the players numbers with the prices in £m?) for long periods, and that organisation and hard work will take you a long way, but whereas last season we had the rub of the green, Dame Fortune kept her revenge until the last seconds of normal time.
Palace were missing Ward, Delaney & Wickham through injury, so in came Kelly, Hangeland and Bolasie. Four wingers and no recognised striker? I daresay if Murray had still been around he would have started, but Pardew passed up the claims of Gayle & Campbell while Bamford didn’t even make the bench. Instead Bolasie played through the middle, although he often drifted out to the right, while Puncheon played in the hole, Sako on the right & Zaha on the left. And Palace went straight for City’s throat, forcing, forcing corners and having shots from Bolasie & Cabaye blocked or just wide. The standard was set for the first half which was a brilliant advert for the Premier League played with precision and never ceasing pace by both teams. City bounced back with a chance for Bony before they cut Palace apart straight down the middle only for McCarthy to bail out his defence winning a one-on-one with Nasri.
The half continued, punch & counter-punch. Bolasie was a livewire and forced another save from Hart, as well as later missing a far post volley, while Souaré cutting in from the left beat the keeper but not the far post. City’s game suffered a blow when a mistimed & nasty looking challenge cleaned out Agüero, who didn’t last long after that; his replacement was the cut-price (€80m?) De Bruyne. Touré took revenge with a touchline lunge on McArthur that fortunately didn’t make hard contact. City started to monopolise the ball in the latter part of the half, making inroads down our right side, and McCarthy had to make two swift blocks with the help of the hard-working defence. Palace were hard-pressed with Sako barely registering as a presence on the right while Wilf wasn’t on his game down the left, being flagged offside several times, even when switching wings late on. The half ended with McCarthy making a good save from €80m and Bolasie’s far post miss. City had struggled to pick up Palace’s system, akin to Spain or Barcelona playing the “false number 9”, and balls to feet or over the top always had them worried despite their increasing pressure. (Palace fans have been used to the concept for years: Chris Jones, Andy McCulloch, Tony Mahoney, Trevor Aylott, Ally Brown... we used false forwards decades ago!)
On the restart there was one obvious change to City’s tactics. Where they had been happy to allow Palace to pass the ball around at the back relatively untroubled, now they pressed high up the pitch, and started to intercept more Palace moves the wrong side of the halfway line from our perspective. Wilf had now switched to the right and he soon set up a chance with a deep cross that saw Hart save the cutback (Sako or Bolasie?) but it was an isolated chance for now. Weird then that City’s best chance actually came from our set piece when Navas was set free; McCarthy didn’t commit himself but was still beaten only for Jesus to save us by hitting the side netting after rounding the keeper; we did enjoy setting our Mancunian cousins straight as they thought it was in. City now had an awful lot of the ball, often facing a 9-man defence, much as they did last year, but despite that they had precious few chances & McCarthy didn’t have a difficult save to make. We were however forced back, often holding a line about 30 yards from goal. By now Sako was withdrawn for Gayle, and one excellent break down the left saw Souaré’s cross find Puncheon’s head, only for Hart to deny us with a fine save. Zaha, whose first half performance had disappointed, now looked our best chance to break the deadlock, one superb turn (aided by a run off the ball by Kelly) sending two City players off towards Fort Neef while he bore down on the area. Note the involvement of both full backs in these attacks; we might have been defending in numbers but still looked to push up on the break.
The arrival of Jedinak for Bolasie made good sense, and then Puncheon limped off after a nasty foul by Mangala to be replaced by Lee. Both new arrivals brought fresh legs to a midfield that needed them – the amount of hard work put in off the ball by McArthur & Cabaye was immense, not just closing down players but also moving to cut out a potential easy pass. Still City seemed encamped around our area and it looked inevitable that one of their quick passing moves would catch us out. So it was galling to see Palace miss a golden chance, Zaha’s run and excellent cross saw Gayle free in the middle – not sure how much he had to stretch for the ball but he got too hard a touch and sent the ball past the near post. Punishment was swift and annoyingly we had chances to shut City down, twice passing up chances on our right flank to clear and conceding a throw-in on the left. Finally Nasri worked a clear chance on goal, and although his show was hard & low, McCarthy at full stretch did get both hands to the ball only for it to run free; the sub Iheanacho who had been on the pitch for about a minute prodded the ball home almost exactly on the 90 minutes mark. Despite having around 6 minutes stoppage time and throwing Hangeland up front it was City who wasted good chances to seal the win, Touré somehow missing a header from about 18 inches out. At the end you could argue that City’s control of the ball & territory in the second half found its reward, but not only was a draw snatched away cruelly, a win had been only a true contact from Dwight’s boot away.
McCarthy – 7 – Faultless until the last, when I think he really should have held the ball having got both hands on it. His one-on-one’s with Nasri & Navas kept us in the game early in both halves, and his other saves were good if routine.
Kelly – 6 – Another who performed well for 89 minutes but really should have dealt with City’s threat down the right that led indirectly to their winner.
Souaré – 7 – A good game although came under increasing pressure down our left in the second half. Defensively sound and adds verve to our attack, his run & cross to set up Puncheon was perfect.
Hangeland – 6 – Another who could have snuffed out City’s attack before their goal. Looked solid & in the first half comfortable with the ball at his feet, but when pressed in the second coughed up possession a few times.
Dann – 7 – The defensive organiser who put Agüero out of the match with what I hope was a mistimed but scything tackle and a deserved yellow card. To play for 70+ minutes against England’s “best” (should that be “probably most expensive”?) and never allow them a real glimpse of goal inside the area without looking remotely like receiving a second caution emphasizes his class.
McArthur – 7 – Stakhanovite in midfield doing a lot of the hard but unglamorous graft but also using the ball well.
Cabaye – 7 – I am still amazed at the amount of off-the-ball work our “luxury” player does. Also showed he can open a defence up with some perceptive through balls, but sadly Sako & Puncheon weren’t quite on the same wavelength.
Puncheon – 6 – Mixed from Jason who had some good touches in the first half but also gave the ball away, often inside our half. Fine header denied by Hart in the second.
Sako – 5 – The one disappointment was that Bakary couldn’t repeat his displays against Villa & Chelsea – perhaps inconsistency is one of the reasons no-one picked him up from Wolves?
Zaha – 7 – Underwhelming in the first half where he had openings but couldn’t work an opening for him or a colleague. Outstanding in the second when he created three good chances and often broke free from two markers.
Bolasie – 6 – Good in the first half when he made openings down our right although his shooting was mostly off target. In the second as we feel deep he found the ball mostly delivered in the air & although he did some hard work it was mostly easy for City to isolate him & pick up the ball.
Gayle – 6 – Some bright moments and I really can’t judge how good a chance it was at the death (from the Whitehorse I’ve no idea how far the ball was ahead of him).
Jedinak – 6 – Some solid work in midfield when he came on, then needed at centre back with Brede up front.
Lee – 6 – Fresh legs might have made a crucial difference but sadly had little chance in short period on pitch