It is now four points from 18 in the Premier League for Manchester City and one win in nine for the defending champions.

An opportunity for City to move closer to Liverpool presented itself when the leaders saw their game postponed at Everton, but the Blues could only close the gap by one.

Erling Haaland cancelled out an early Crystal Palace opener, and when the Blues looked to take control of the game they let another easy goal past them and were forced to settle for a point thanks to Rico Lewis - who was later sent off.

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These are the moments you might have missed from City's draw at Palace:

Haaland calls Walker out

It was a nightmare start at Selhurst Park for the second year running as the City defence parted to allow Daniel Munoz a free shot at Stefan Ortega, who didn't convince much as the ball squirmed under him and into the back of the net. City desperately appealed for offside, but replays showed captain Kyle Walker was playing Munoz - and another Palace forward - onside.

As VAR double-checked the offside, striker Erling Haaland could be seen gesturing to Walker, presumably about the defending he had just witnessed. Haaland was pointing as the pair exchanged opinions before the referee confirmed that the goal would stand.

Walker is not having a great season, and is not in the best condition by his own admission. A non-existent effort at defending the corner for Palace's second goal saw another poor reaction as he looked to the referee to dig him out of his latest hole.

Damning 93 per cent stat

City had earned their way back into the contest at Palace and came out in the second half determined and with purpose. Guardiola had given a handful of players an extra coaching session just before coming back out, and the Blues boasted a ridiculous 93 per cent possession in the first 12 minutes of the second half.

But possession means nothing if you can't do anything with it. City waited patiently for an opening, yet fell behind to Palace's seven per cent stars. Bernardo Silva played a blind pass into the middle, Will Hughes pounced and won a corner, taking the set piece himself for Maxence Lacroix to power home.

It was another poor show from Walker, who lost his man from another corner after struggling in the same situations against Virgil Van Dijk last week. Walker, again, chose to take out his frustrations with the referee before the restart - but only had himself to blame.

Ruthless City

When Ruben Dias took control of a dangerous situation by leaving Jean-Philippe Mateta to clatter into Ortega, it was the Palace striker who came off worse. It wasn't a penalty, and Mateta wasn't particularly hurt, but he had stayed down long enough that he felt he had to stay down to make his point.

City were not in the mood for sympathy, even if Mateta was winded at best. They took the ball up the other end and resisted growing calls to put the ball out of play as Mateta remained on the grass. Oliver Glasner and his staff picked a fight with Pep Guardiola, but City wouldn't budge.

The referee, to his credit, allowed City to continue. It wasn't a foul and there was no head injury. So when Mateta finally decided to get up, the City fans cheered and mocked the miraculous recovery. It didn't lead to a goal directly, but soon after, City got back on level terms with their relentless possession.

New pre-match routine gives players the freedom

City trialled a new warm-up drill for their forwards and the same one returned at Selhurst Park after the midweek win. Instead of players lining up to take a shot on goal, the forwards took up places around the area. Bernardo Silva and Savinho on one side, Matheus Nunes on the other with substitute Jacob Wright.

That gave the clue that it would be Nunes on the left-wing rather than Bernardo, with the two wide players taking in turns to cross for Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne running in. Or, to take a lay-off and curl a shot from distance at Scott Carson's goal. In the centre, Haaland and De Bruyne took turns to set each other up in different scenarios, albeit without any defenders.

It was a drill that gave the players some freedom to warm up how they could see the game going, rather than just honing their shooting skills. It's a shame the defence weren't given more rigorous warm-ups.