Manchester City produced a 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace at the Etihad on Wednesday, a result that maintains a tight title race with Arsenal. The three points ensured that Arsenal would not be able to wrap up the league this weekend with a single win over relegated Burnley.<\/p>\n
The scoring began in the 32nd minute when Phil Foden back-heeled the ball to Antoine Semenyo, who, positioned inside the box with his back to goal, required one touch to turn and beat the goalkeeper. Eight minutes later Omar Marmoush doubled the lead, allowing the ball to roll past before taking a first-time right-footed shot over Dean Henderson\u2019s legs. City sealed the win in the 84th minute as Savinho threaded a skilful run through Palace\u2019s backline and finished a left-footed flick into the side netting.<\/p>\n
The Cityzens sit two points behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with both teams holding two games remaining. Arsenal still control their destiny: win both remaining matches against Burnley and Palace and they will secure the title. If Arsenal record a win and a draw while City win both of their remaining fixtures against Bournemouth and Aston Villa, the two clubs would finish level on 83 points and the title would be decided by goal difference, and then by goals scored if necessary.<\/p>\n
City will hope either Burnley or Palace can challenge Arsenal in the coming rounds. Burnley are considered unlikely to upset the Gunners, but Palace could pose a threat, particularly if Mikel Arteta partially rotates his squad ahead of the Champions League final. Palace themselves may adjust personnel given their Conference League final follows their fixture with Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Player ratings:<\/p>\n
GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma\u20148.0: Relatively untested on the night.<\/p>\n
RB: Matheus Nunes\u20147.2: Combined well with Savinho.<\/p>\n
CB: Abdukodir Khusanov\u20147.6: Solid outing for the Uzbekistan international.<\/p>\n
CB: Marc Gu\u00e9hi\u20147.8: Was patient on the ball. Did well to penetrate the space the Eagles gave him.<\/p>\n
LB: Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol\u20146.6: Looked comfortable and collected, despite taking the pitch for the first time since January.<\/p>\n
CM: Bernardo Silva\u20147.4: Was highly successful at breaking down Palace\u2019s midfield lines.<\/p>\n
RM: Savinho\u20148.2: Had creative looks to switch the field, but lacked accuracy early in the match. Brilliant in his late goal.<\/p>\n
AM: Phil Foden\u20148.9: Two assists for the Englishman, who had a point to prove.<\/p>\n
LM: Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri\u20147.1: Rejoined the starting lineup. Was dynamic high up the left flank.<\/p>\n
ST: Antoine Semenyo\u20147.2: Took a rare central position and struggled to get involved at times, but came through when it mattered.<\/p>\n
ST: Omar Marmoush\u20147.9: Proved the star power of striker Erling Haaland wasn\u2019t needed.<\/p>\n
Subs: Nathan Ak\u00e9 (58\u2019 for Nunes)\u20146.3; J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku (58\u2019 for Gvardiol)\u20146.0; Rayan Cherki (79\u2019 for Marmoush)\u20147.6; Mateo Kovacic (79\u2019 for Silva)\u20146.5; John Stones (82\u2019 for Foden)\u2014N\/A.<\/p>\n
Subs not used: James Trafford (GK), R\u00faben Dias, Tijjani Reijnders, Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n
Match statistics: Possession 72% – 28%; Expected Goals (xG) 1.56 – 0.68; Total Shots 15 – 6; Shots on Target 4 – 2; Big Chances 3 – 0; Pass Accuracy 89% – 77%; Fouls Committed 10 – 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City’s 3-0 win over Palace keeps the title race alive; two games remain and Arsenal lead by two yet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[465,238,969],"tags":[801,1637,988],"class_list":["post-13790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crystal-palace","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","tag-antoine-semenyo","tag-assists","tag-bernardo-silva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}