Manchester City maintained the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League by beating Crystal Palace 1-0 tonight at Selhurst Park.
Pep Guardiola’s side predictably dominated right from the off, although the usually reliable Erling Haaland would spurn the best chance of the first half when he blasted over from six yards after being found by Nathan Ake’s low cross.
Despite Palace showing plenty of defensive resolve, they offered nothing in attack throughout and in the 78th minute Man City eventually broke them down and scored their winner. German IIkay Gundogan was taken down in the area by Michael Olise and Haaland atoned for his earlier miss by sending the keeper the wrong way and stroking home from the penalty spot for his 28th Premier League goal of the season.
Speaking afterwards Guardiola was pleased with the ‘patience’ his side showed against a team that sat in deep and looked to hit on the counter.
“My experience is that every time we come here it has been very tough,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
”Always I have the feeling when we come here, we play really good thinking how good they are. We always struggle because we want to score more goals.
ERLING HAALAND IS INEVITABLE 😤 pic.twitter.com/XYG3BL9sfS
— GOAL (@goal) March 11, 2023
“They have weapons. [Wilfried] Zaha is there, [Michael] Olise, [Eberechi] Eze, they are incredible strikers and they have incredible threat. They have composure, great attacking players. It is a question of patience. They will waste time so we have to push to do it.
“Everything pleased me, we missed the counter attack a bit. It is not easy, they defend six players in the box and Erling Haaland had two men marking him, Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] had a man, it was a question of patience.
“Teams defend deep against Haaland. Julian [Alvarez] is so important and we need him. We needed him in the middle and he had a chance. Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] is an exceptional player and got the penalty and Haaland did the rest.
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