Crystal Palace (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

Two down after 20mins and all was not well in Cityland. A defeat would have been catastrophic and the vultures in the media would have been circling. The world this morning would have been a different place.
Thankfully, one man decided that that was not gonna happen on his watch. Not for the first time i his City career Kevin de Bruyne took the game by the scruff of its neck and decided to altar history. It was almost as if a switch had been flicked and the electricity surged through his team and the supporters.
After pulling one back it was almost inevitable that City would go on to win the match. Palace folded under the pressure and not one of their young, fast, vibrant midfield could get near the old guy now running the show.
This was by no means a one man show. Pretty much every City player responded with the same desire Kev showed and upped their game and at 3-2 it became a question of how many more they could get.
I should also mention the supporters when it comes to motivation. They roared the team on and seemed to give every player an extra yard of pace.
This morning i would think every one of us woke up with a smile on our faces and looking forward to a good day.
Nice one Kev.
 
Protein Junkie said:
Excellent fight back, five goals and the three points.
It’s not a vintage year but I’m really excited about this transition.
Nic O’Reilly, Gvardiol, Khusanov, Oscar Kate, Omar will hopefully all be in the next full fat version of City.
Add in a fair sprinkle of the likes of Rodders, Erling and a rejuvenated Phil and who knows.
Love this club.
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Add Nico Gonzalez and James Macatee to that.
 
Five goals, and we were still very wasteful in front of goal, it could have been ten.
Kev was superb, just like the old days. He is going to take some replacing.
 
Just watching it back. That first Palace goal, sorry, but it's completely brain dead from the defence and defensive midfield.

Right at the start of it there's a potential problem — Palace have got an overload. We've got four across a very high line (that's the way we play it, fair enough), Palace have got five. In front of that defence, about twenty yards ahead or so, we've got two players (can't identify them) who are fairly advanced, but just in a no man's land, neither set up for attacking, nor for defending. In fact, serving no particular purpose.
Nico O'Reilly does his best to get out, I don't think he's at fault there, but the problem is the Palace player who makes a run in behind, and absolutely no-one tracks him. From there on it it's going to be a goal, unless Ed pulls off a remarkable save. The two central attacking Palace players leave Rúben (I think it's Rúben) and Rico for dead. They've lost them. That's going to be a goal, if the ball in is good enough. It's more than good, it's excellent. Simple punishment.
I can't help thinking, for the umpteenth time, how much the absence of Johnny, Nathan Aké, Manu Akanji has really killed us this season. Compounded by the absence of Rod. I genuinely think there's far less likelihood of that situation with those three/four out on that park. That, along with the fact that neither Rico nor Nunes are proper full backs. They are makeshifts in that position (I do not judge whether they have a role elsewhere, many on here think they don't).
Don't bother to tell me we won. I know that, and I'm buzzing like everyone else. But we've kept virtually no clean sheets this season, and there's a reason for that. Ed's not been great in his shot stopping, but it's not principallly on him. Given our ridiculous injuries, (up front, too — Erling out for the second lengthy spell this season) I don't see how we could have done better than we did. If we do get CL qualification and the Cup it will, in fact, be a remarkable achievement. That's the plain truth.
I also suspect that our insane injury list is not down to this or that player. It is the cumulative result of eight solid years of back-breaking effort, off the ball especially but also on it. The price for that has been paid with interest this season.
 
Forgetting the two soft ( Almost a third ) goals we gave away we absolutely battered Palace all game and could have scored ten if we'd taken all our chances. They came into our game on a good run of form. I still can't decide if we were extremely good or they were extremely bad lol.
 
paulchapo said:
Forgetting the two soft ( Almost a third ) goals we gave away we absolutely battered Palace all game and could have scored ten if we'd taken all our chances. They came into our game on a good run of form. I still can't decide if we were extremely good or they were extremely bad lol.
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It was a great win against a good team in great form.

Crystal Palace are unbeaten in their last 10 away games in the Premier League (W6 D4); never before in their league history have they had a longer run without defeat on the road.
 
paulchapo said:
Forgetting the two soft ( Almost a third ) goals we gave away we absolutely battered Palace all game and could have scored ten if we'd taken all our chances. They came into our game on a good run of form. I still can't decide if we were extremely good or they were extremely bad lol.
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Think they were really good for their goals & chances (their first was criminal by us, fantastic by them) but then they just couldn't play their game as we wouldn’t let them. Good discussion on it on the latest Let Me Talk pod
 
Bluearmy said:
2 goals in 40 appearances has killed us! He shouldn't be getting starts for the worst team in the league with that awful return!! Nevermind for a team wanting to win things. Im not slagging him off, he’s young and new to the league as you say, shows some promise. However the numbers don't lie, he has virtually no goal threat and that isn't acceptable for our 1st choice winger according to minutes played. Mcatee has to start moving forward…
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Let’s see where those 2 are in another 12 months and revisit this. I bet Savinho has gone to another level by then and will be first choice on the wing.
 
paulchapo said:
Forgetting the two soft ( Almost a third ) goals we gave away we absolutely battered Palace all game and could have scored ten if we'd taken all our chances. They came into our game on a good run of form. I still can't decide if we were extremely good or they were extremely bad lol.
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The truth is that most of the time — the great majority of it — a really good team forces the other team to look bad. That would have been especially true looking at the run that Palace have just come off.
 
Apologies if already mentioned, but was Foden injured? Saw he was in street clothes and they just said he's not in the squad today.
 
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