Manchester City Fan View: Palace draw must not drag Sky Blues down

Manchester City’s phenomenal Premier League winning streak came to an end at the weekend, after they succumbed to a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. The outcome of the game could have been even worse for the Sky Blues, after a controversial last-gasp penalty almost earned the Eagles three points, if not for the heroics of goalkeeper Ederson.

The game was the first league fixture in which City had failed to score a single goal and had Pep Guardiola’s men lost against Roy Hodgson’s counterparts, their status as unbeaten in the Premier League so far this term would have been lost, too.

Thankfully, that was not the case. The most frustrating thing for City fans after the game, and hopefully for the superstar players too, is that this City team are capable of more. Obviously, the winning run was always going to come to an end, but City should have won the game at the weekend. They were far from their imperious best.

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It says an awful lot about the current mentality surrounding the City camp that a draw and a clean sheet away from home against a side who have had a recent resurgence in form since Hodgson took charge will inevitably be considered a poor result.

Yet perhaps it should be considered a poor result by all accounts, anyway. The Blues had 74% of possession and 15 attempts on goal, though only four of those shots was on target.

Kevin De Bruyne, in particular, was noticeably frustrated at some moments, leading to him shouting at Leroy Sane at one point after he had over-hit a pass to the German winger – a sign of the Belgian’s desire to constantly be at the top level of his game.

A bad-looking injury to Gabriel Jesus and a potential knock suffered by De Bruyne could cause further problems down the line, both in terms of future injuries to those players and to others who may need to fill in and not have the chance to rest between games in this busy period of fixtures.

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Of course, it is too soon to start talk of a crisis. The Palace game was the Citizens’ first away goalless draw in the league for over 30 matches since March 2016 versus Norwich City. City had previously won every away game since April 2017.

City are also still unbeaten in the league and being 14 points clear at the turn of the year is some achievement. However, City must be careful and ensure that they do not let the sub-par performance against Crystal Palace affect their positive play. City have to go into the home game against Watford with the same mindset and attacking intent which has seen them storm ahead in the title race this season.

And the failure to win 19 consecutive league fixtures – matching the record of consecutive league wins in Europe’s top five leagues set by City coach Guardiola at Bayern Munich – is perhaps an indication that this current City team is not quite at the level of a prime Pep team just yet.