Crystal Palace 0-0 Manchester City: 5 talking points
Crystal Palace earned a valuable point against runaway league leaders Manchester City, bringing 2017 to a close on a high note.
Kun Aguero came closest to scoring for the visitors while the home side spurned a number of chances of their own, courtesy of Andros Townsend and even a missed penalty by Luka Milivojevic in the dying stages.
Scott Dann was stretchered off just after the first quarter while Gabriel Jesus followed soon after; Kevin de Bruyne and Jason Puncheon also needed to be carried off the pitch near the end of regulation time.
#5 Palace pinch City pockets, hold marauders goalless
Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace became the first team to stop Pep Guardiola’s men scoring in the Premier League. Yes, you read that right; I gave you a heads-up already!
City has scored 61 goals in the league from the 20 games prior to their visit to Selhurst Park, including 5 in the home leg of this very fixture in September.
Palace is only the second team this season who managed to keep the City attack at bay across all competitions. The first team to achieve this feat were Wolves in the Carabao Cup (in normal/extra time) but they ended up losing on penalties.
Palace showed intense discipline to keep the Citizens in check, without simply sitting back and parking the bus. Scott Dann had a bright start before having to be taken off due to injury; his replacement Martin Kelly did a good job too.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah though, was the thorn in the visitors’ side as he pinned back Leroy Sane (and to an extent Kevin de Bruyne) effectively and making several key tackles and blocks in the box.
James Tomkins and Patrick van-Aanholt proved to be an able cast in defence and Wayne Hennessey made himself big during key moments and all of his 6 feet and 6 inches count.
The midfield helped out whenever needed and Wilfried Zaha was as much of a willing outlet in attack as he was in tracking back.