Manchester City comfortably beat Crystal Palace to move back to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal and ensure a tense title tussle continues into the final week of the season.
Pep Guardiola’s side knew failure to win on Wednesday would have handed the Gunners an opportunity to clinch the title by beating Burnley on Monday, but this fascinating fight for the trophy looks like it’s going to the wire.
With Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea in mind, manager Guardiola gambled with his City team selection by making six changes and leaving out the attacking trio of Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, and the in-form Jeremy Doku.
The numerous alterations seemed to affect City early on, in a flat showing before midfielder Phil Foden sparked the game into life.
The England international produced a sublime backheel to play Antoine Semenyo in on goal, and the Ghanaian produced a clinical strike past Dean Henderson, before Omar Marmoush doubled the lead, spinning and finishing following Foden’s pass.
Full-back Tyrick Mitchell’s thumping effort immediately after the opening goal, which was pushed away by Gianluigi Donnarumma, was Palace’s best effort, but Savinho added a third for the hosts late on to complete a fine victory.
City’s meeting against Palace was the game in hand from their appearance in the Carabao Cup final back in March – the top two have now both played the same number of games with 36 apiece.
Arsenal will guarantee a long-awaited title triumph if they win both their remaining games, while they can also claim the title early next week if they beat Burnley on Monday and City fails to beat Bournemouth the following day.
