Haaland brace keeps Man City chasing Arsenal

Crystal Palace 0-3 Man City

Man City: Erling Haaland (41'), (89') (P), Foden (69')

Arsenal faced many difficulties with injuries against bottom-placed Wolves at the Emirates on Saturday. Although two own goals from Sam Johnstone and Yerson Mosquera helped Arsenal win 2-1, they extended their lead over Man City to five points. Facing Crystal Palace on Sunday, City needed a win to cut the gap back to two points.

However, Crystal Palace proved they were not an easy test for Pep Guardiola and his team. They even created the first chance of the match, as Yeremy Pino’s shot beat Gianluigi Donnarumma but clipped the top of the bar. City had several chances but failed to find a breakthrough. Finally, in the 41st minute, Erling Haaland broke the deadlock with a header from Matheus Nunes’ cross, scoring the opening goal for his team.

The first half ended 1-0, and City entered the second half with an unchanged lineup. They continued to look for goals on the counter, though without much success at first. In the 69th minute, Rayan Cherki won the ball from Palace, passed it to Phil Foden, and the Englishman finished low into the right corner to extend the lead to 2-0. It was his sixth goal in his last five games in all competitions.

As the clock ticked down, Palace were still unable to find a goal to reduce the deficit. In the final minute of regular time, Erling Haaland scored his second goal to seal a 3-0 win for City at Selhurst Park. With this victory, Pep’s side extended their unbeaten run to 11 Premier League games and remained two points behind Arsenal.

After the match, Pep appeared unhappy with Phil Foden’s performance. He said in his post-match interview: “I think today was not good, he didn’t play at his best. He lost a lot of balls, he was too anxious with his decisions. The problem last season was not Phil, it was everyone - me included. This was an incredible lesson for us.”

Man City will face Brentford in the League Cup quarter-finals on 18/12, then host West Ham two days later, before meeting Nottingham Forest on 27/12 to end their 2025.