Manchester City haven’t had a great season by their usually high standards, but the weekend win over Crystal Palace gave them a big boost in pursuit of the Premier League’s top four.
Pep Guardiola’s charges came back from two goals down to record an emphatic 5-2 win over Palace in Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off at the Etihad Stadium.
Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards stunned the home crowd with two goals in the opening 22 minutes, but Kevin De Bruyne helped Manchester City turn things round.
The soon-to-be-departing midfielder scored a 33rd-minute free kick to halve the deficit, before Omar Marmoush struck three minutes later to restore parity.
De Bruyne then laid the ball off for Mateo Kovacic to put City ahead early in the second half, before James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly made sure of all three points.
Gary Lineker has now shared what City did against Palace that he felt was “the first time this season” that they had done so.
Gary Lineker says Manchester City looked like ‘City of old’ against Crystal Palace
Lineker, speaking on The Rest is Football, believes City’s performance against Palace was like the “City of old”.
Although Lineker still feels the Citizens still aren’t at their very best, they seem to be on the road to recovery after a “bleak” period.
“Let’s move on to, well, Manchester City, Micah,” Lineker said to Micah Richards. “I mean, it looked bleak for a while. They went two down against Palace at home.
“They’ve been on a terrific run of form. But that was more like, that’s the closest I’ve seen this season, I think genuinely, to the Manchester City of old.
“Still, you know, not quite the same. They were still a little bit open at times.
“But in terms of the energy and the press, I think it’s the first time this season that I think you can say that, that is the Pep scene that we’ve seen in the past.”
What Oliver Glasner told Pep Guardiola after the game
There’s a possibility that City and Palace could face off one more time this season.
City take on Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-finals, while Palace are up against Villa in their last-four tie, so there’s a chance they could meet in the final.
When asked after the game if he thinks he saw enough from Palace to beat City at Wembley, Oliver Glasner responded: “Yes.
“I said to Pep afterwards, if we meet again, you can’t play in this system, because we will solve it.”
Guardiola went with a 4-2-3-1 formation on the day, Nico Gonzalez returning to the starting XI and James McAtee named on the right.
The system worked very well once De Bruyne got City back into the game – but Glasner has shown he has what it takes to cause Guardiola problems.
