66 2GM Tuesday March 15 2022 | the times
SportFootball
There were no goals but that would not
have stopped the celebrations on
Merseyside sounding as if this was a
nine-goal thriller. Manchester City, in
terms of chances created, should have
extended their lead at the top of the
Premier League to six points.
Instead, they dropped two and
handed the advantage to Liverpool,
who face Arsenal tomorrow, in the title
race. Should Liverpool win at the Emir-
ates, they will be one point behind City,
setting up the title race as one of the
most tense and enthralling we have
seen.
Two months ago the gap between
Jürgen Klopp’s side and City was 14
points so those who said that the meet-
ing between City and Liverpool on
April 10 would come too late to mean
much were not so much foolish as
fatalistic.
This was a feather in the cap of
Patrick Vieira, who has wrested four
points off City this season and although
his team rode their luck, their unflappa-
bility and sheer hard work was at the
heart of keeping Pep Guardiola’s team
at bay.
City summoned 14 shots to the home
side’s three but Palace’s intense concen-
tration in defence made up for their
lack of goalmouth action and certainly
the home fans made it plain they were
more than delighted with the overall
performance. “I can’t feel my legs,”
Conor Gallagher told Sky Sports.
“Every one of the boys worked so hard,
we gave everything and I’m proud of
the team. I’m struggling to talk and my
legs have gone.”
Gallagher still had the strength to
run at the City defence at the death and
produce an audacious shot that was
close to troubling Ederson. “I can’t stop
him, and I don’t want to stop him,” Viei-
ra said. “And this is why we love him.”
Vieira, who sauntered ever so casual-
ly to his seat in the dugout before kick-
off as if about to pit his wits against a
flimsy team in a charity fixture, had
being fed a promising pass by Kouyaté
but the ball became stuck under his feet.
It was an increasingly rare moment of
respite for the Palace defence whose
concentration was so focused you
could almost regard it as a supernatural
entity hovering over the turf.
A shot on the turn from Zaha repre-
sented the winger’s most dangerous
moment but the effort was gathered
with ease by Ederson.
As the final seconds ticked by, Guard-
iola’s team wore expressions of frustra-
tion. They were almost dishevelled,
their white shirts smeared in mud as
their passing became less, not more,
incisive and their patience levels
waned. A beautiful De Bruyne free kick
was met meekly by Laporte. Another
wasted chance. Gallagher could not feel
his legs, but Liverpool fans can feel their
hearts thumping.Premier League
P W DL F A GDPts
Man City..........29 22 4 3 68 18 50 70
Liverpool........28 20 6 2 73 20 53 66
Chelsea............28 17 8 3 57 19 38 59
Arsenal............26 16 3 7 43 29 14 51
Man United....29 14 8 7 48 40 8 50
West Ham.......29 14 6 9 48 36 12 48
Wolves.............29 14 4 11 29 23 6 46
Spurs................27 14 3 10 42 35 7 45
Aston Villa......28 11 3 14 41 39 2 36
Southampton 29 811103645-935
Crystal Palace 29 7 13 9 39 38 1 34
Leicester.........26 9 6 11 40 45 -5 33
Brighton..........28 7 12 9 26 34 -8 33
Newcastle.......28 7 10 11 32 48 -16 31
Brentford........29 8 6 15 32 45 -13 30
Leeds................29 6 8 15 31 65 -34 26
Everton............26 6 4 16 28 47 -19 22
Watford...........29 6 4 19 29 55 -26 22
Burnley............ 27 3 12 12 22 38 -16 21
Norwich..........29 4 5 20 18 63 -45 17
Games remaining in title race
Man City Date Liverpool
Tomorrow Arsenal (A)
Burnley (A) April 2 Watford (H)
Liverpool (H) April 10 Man City (A)
Wolves (A) April 16 Aston Villa (A)
Watford (H) April 23 Everton (H)
Leeds (A) April 30 Newcastle (A)
Newcastle (H) May 7 Tottenham (H)
West Ham (A) May 15 S’hampton (A)
Aston Villa (H) May 22 Wolves (H)
Brighton (H) TBC Man Utd (H)Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): V Guaita 8 — N Clyne 7,
J Andersen 7, M Guehi 7, T Mitchell 8 —
C Kouyaté 7, J Schlupp 7 — M Olise 6 (J Ayew
65min, 5), C Gallagher 7, W Zaha 6 — J-P Mateta 7
(O Édouard 65, 6). Booked Kouyaté, Gallagher,
Édouard.
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson 6 — K Walker 6,
J Stones 6, A Laporte 6, J Cancelo 7 —
K De Bruyne 8, Rodri 7, B Silva 6 — R Mahrez 8,
P Foden 5, J Grealish 6. Booked Grealish.
Referee M Atkinson.Premier League
Alyson Rudd
Wasteful City open door for
Crystal Palace
Manchester City
0
0
spoken of the need for patience against
City but his players began with a dose of
nervous energy. City, by contrast, were
entirely at ease, emanating a sense of
entitled superiority that comes with
being top of the league and on the back
of their dismantling of Manchester
United.
Palace calmed down quickly and
waited for a rare error, the first of which
came in the tenth minute when Gal-
lagher was able to dispossess Aymeric
Laporte leaving the visitors exposed.
Gallagher’s subsequent cross was over-
hit, however, leaving Wilfried Zaha
with little option but to hit the side-
netting with an unconvincing effort.
Michael Olise delivered an eye-
catching shot with the outside of his left
foot after a fine run from Jean-Philippe
Mateta but the ball flew beyond the far
post. Still, it served to bring an end to
the short waiting game and the contest
sparked to life as the home side began to
resemble the team that had so bedaz-
zled Wolves in their previous fixture.
Still, the best chances were carved
out by Guardiola’s side. A strike from
Kevin De Bruyne was fumbled by
Vicente Guaita and Bernardo Silva
nipped in to try to tap in the rebound
but badly miscontrolled the ball.
The home side were intermittently
highly dangerous on the break and a
pass from Tyrick Mitchell exposed the
City high line, leaving Mateta and Olise
to work in tandem to forge a shot but
the move fizzled out as City retreated.
De Bruyne attempted a short-range
lob of Guaita, which the Palace goal-
keeper was equal to and the Belgian
international appeared to apologise for
the cheek of his attempt.
City then wasted another gift of a
chance when João Cancelo’s stinging
effort hit the post to leave Guaita
stranded only for Laporte, who was sent
off when Palace defeated City in Octo-
ber, to wildly miscue.
Riyad Mahrez ran in from the right
flank and looked set to reprise his
sublime finish against United, but he
shot straight at the goalkeeper. Later, he
skipped aggressively to the edge of the
area to unleash a brisk effort that he
failed, just, to land on target.
The first 45 minutes had been about
City trying to impose authority on a
team who had inflicted defeat on them
five months earlier, to make it plain
they did not believe in bogey teams. It
was also about Palace refusing to be
intimidated and doing just enough on
the counter to induce the occasional
flashback in Guardiola’s side.
A Palace corner kick that seemed to
have been overthought ended all the
same with a close-range opportunity
for Cheikhou Kouyaté, which he was
too flustered to execute and he sank to
his knees in disappointment.
At the other end it was hard to tell if
the home team were lucky with the way
the ball bobbled and ricocheted or sim-
ply very alert. Gallagher embarked on a
run out of defence so uncompromising
that Jack Grealish felt forced to foul him
to stop him from covering the full
length of the pitch. Gallagher has been
synonymous with much that has been
creative for Palace this season but last
night it was more about his sheer, deter-
mined energy to repel City.
Then came more rebound agony for
the visitors as De Bruyne’s effort hit the
far post only to rebound kindly for the
ever-menacing Mahrez, whose rifled
strike was saved by Guaita.
Grealish looked to have set up Silva
with a sharp, impudent pass across the
face of goal, but the Portuguese mis-
timed his connection for yet another
let-off for the south London team.
Odsonne Édouard tried to jink his
way through the City defence afterGuéhi, the Palace captain, and Guaita join forces to deny Foden as City drew a blank in the Premier League for the first timeGuardiola will make time to
watch ‘interesting’ title rivals
Alyson RuddPep Guardiola will not hide behind the
sofa when Liverpool take on Arsenal
tomorrow evening.
The Manchester City manager said
that he would first of all watch the
Champions League schedule tonight,
and tomorrow evening tune in to watch
the game at the Emirates,
which, if Jurgen Klopp’s side
win, will mean the Mersey-
side club reduce the gap
on the leaders to a single
point.
“I’m going to watch
the Champions League
and then I’ll watch Liver-
pool on Wednesday,”
Guardiola said.
“Liverpool is an interesting
team to watch.”
The fact Crystal Palace battled for a
draw that will have quite an impact on
the title race was not lost on PatrickVieira, below. “Obviously, we make it
more exciting for the neutral,” the Crys-
tal Palace manager said.
“We’ve got to win a lot of games,”
Guardiola added. “We played a fantas-
tic football game in all departments.
“It was difficult to control their
players up front. We created a lot of
chances. On another day, we will score.
That’s football. We have to score
goals and we didn’t do it.
“There are still nine
games, a lot of points to
go. We were not brilliant
up front, but in general, it
was a really good game.
“We were 14 points
ahead [of Liverpool], they
had two games fewer.
They have one now.
“I have said many times
that there are many games to play.
We have to win games.”
“The players are tired,” Vieira said.
“But it’s a really good feeling.”irates,
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