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Manchester City suffered a shock 3-2 loss to Crystal Palace on a miserable afternoon for the champions.
The Blues had led through Ilkay Gundogan’s header, but were punished quickly back by two successive goals from Palace who increased their lead from the penalty spot shortly after the break.
Kevin De Bruyne pulled one back late on, a cross-shot that went in.
Alas, it was a little to late in the day and Palace held on.
It was just a rare bad day today for the champions who will look to bounce back quickly over the Christmas period. Boxing Day Awaits.
On to the reaction:
Pep Guardiola Reaction
“We have an incredible team – fantastic players,” he stated. “We started quite decent and created chances. We scored a fantastic goal and after they passed the halfway line they scored.
”The first two times Crystal Palace crossed our halfway line, they scored. We played good. Their second goal was an incredible goal.
“We reacted well to the second goal and in the second half, we started okay. We put more people in the box.
”The third goal... the penalty was really tough for us. We cannot concede the penalty we conceded. We have to try and avoid it. Football is like this – three shots on goal and three goals.
“We scored a goal – a little bit late but even then, we had chances to score. We did absolutely everything.
“They arrived two times and before the penalty, they hit the post but they didn’t have another shot on target.
“Congratulations to Palace. Defensively, they were brilliant. I give a lot of credit.
“That is football and sometimes it happens. The teams are good and there is a lot of quality.
“Now, we must go onto the next one. There are a lot of games to play. We have to recover mentally and recover our physicality.”
Fabian Delph Reaction
“Obviously the result is a setback. We have lost but we are only looking at ourselves game to game,” said Delph.
”We had a few chances which we have put away in the past, but fair play to Crystal Palace - they were stubborn and organised.
”It’s hard to analyse and we will go back to the drawing board and look at it. We started slowly and the ball wasn’t zipping about.”
Notable Tweets
No time to dwell on it, guys... Let's bounce back on Boxing Day! #mancity pic.twitter.com/YLQBeZjawQ
— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 22, 2018
City lose at the Etihad and Chelsea in Stamford Bridge lose, too.
— Bitter and Blue (@Bitter_and_Blue) December 22, 2018
City v Liverpool in January will be massive. pic.twitter.com/QkOCKREG0A
— Bitter and Blue (@Bitter_and_Blue) December 22, 2018
FT: City 2 - 3 Palace
— City Chief ️ (@City_Chief) December 22, 2018
- Stones is not a DM
- Walker shouldn’t have started based on his form in last 5 games
- KDB came on too late
Chance to close gap on Liverpool, but Pep got it wrong today!
Next up is Leicester City Away on Boxing Day. See you then!