Crystal Palace Fan View: Manchester City were there for the taking

Two points dropped, or a point gained?

It’s not often teams walk away from a game against Manchester City thinking that we should have taken all three, but yesterday Crystal Palace had reason to think that.

The penalty decision, the penalty miss and Jason Puncheon’s subsequent challenge will all be talked about, but if we’d have won this game it wouldn’t have been a hit and run. Manchester City dominated the ball, as they always do, but they weren’t as effective at using it in the final third as usual. It was unusual to see such sloppy passing from the Citizens.

By contrast, Crystal Palace carved out some gilt-edged chances. A bit more composure from Christian Benteke in the first half and we could have gone ahead; if Andros Townsend doesn’t shank his clear chance in the second half we would have led; if the penalty goes in we’d have gone in front.

The point I’m trying to make is that we didn’t have one chance, we had many. Manchester City were off-colour, there’s no denying that, but it was Crystal Palace who harried and pressed, who got back into their shape quickly to starve Manchester City of space. It’s a valuable point, but we could have had all three and it wouldn’t have been unfair.

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A tale of tackles

Part of Crystal Palace’s gameplan was clearly to get in the faces of the Manchester City players, to put them under pressure, make our presence known. By and large, I think we did that within the rules of the game, but after four players made their way off during the game due to injury, and Crystal Palace were awarded a protested penalty, the bigger talking point this time isn’t the football.

It all started with Andros Townsend, who put in a seemingly innocuous challenge on Gabriel Jesus. He fell awkwardly, tried to continue but couldn’t manage it. Next was Scott Dann’s tackle on Kevin De Bruyne, which ended up crocking Dann himself. That could mean another lay-off in a position Crystal Palace can ill-afford to lose many more players.

Then there was the penalty. I don’t think it was a dive; Zaha’s right leg coming across for the ball compromised his balance and any touch from Sterling was bound to knock him over. I think had Sterling been in on goal at the other end, it would have played out in exactly the same way, and City would have probably been awarded a penalty. Does that mean it’s a penalty? That’s anyone’s guess.

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Straight from the penalty came the worst one of all. I have no doubt that Jason Puncheon will come in for criticism from all corners, especially if Kevin De Bruyne ends up spending any considerable length of time out of action. However, as a football player trying to protect a point, he’s made the right decision and executed it terribly.

It’s very easy to get self-righteous about these things, but don’t make the mistake of thinking Jason Puncheon is some sort of heathen for considering the tackle – I think Kevin De Bruyne would have made a similar tackle if the positions had been reversed.

It was a bad tackle and Jason Puncheon should have seen red for it. The referee has a duty to protect the players, which in that case he didn’t do. It was late, deliberate but most importantly high, that is the real problem with the tackle. Pull him back? Fine. Shove him off the ball? Fine. Wipe him out at knee height? Tougher to defend.

The long and the short of it is that both teams could look back on this game and not lament the dropped points, but instead the casualties it bore.

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Southampton comes quickly

After successive home games against the league’s elite, next is a trip to the south coast to face a Southampton side who haven’t had the best time of it lately. Much like Crystal Palace at the start of the season, they’ve faced Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea in the space of six games and have struggled in the ‘easier’ games in between.

A 4-1 loss to Leicester and two draws against Huddersfield and Bournemouth will have been a disappointing return given the difficulty of their other fixtures over Christmas, which is why they will be targeting Crystal Palace as a source of three valuable points.

For us, the picture is much the same. Playing the top sides makes a game against Southampton look winnable, even when recent history shows we’ve consistently struggled at St. Mary’s.

However, this is the final game of a packed Christmas schedule and will come just two days after Crystal Palace played Manchester City, so don’t be surprised if the winner is the one that is slightly less bad…