Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace Review

Premier League GW32

There was plenty of discussion when the team news was released, the same approach as against Manchester United, but with some personnel changes. Although they conceded twice in the opening twenty minutes, Manchester City would go on to turn it around across the ninety minutes.

MOTM: KEVIN DE BRUYNE

Other standout performances include: Mateo Kovacic & Josko Gvardiol

Notable Stats:

• Kevin De Bruyne has now recorded at least one goal and one assist in 28 different Premier League games; only four players can better that.
  - Mohamed Salah (42)
  - Wayne Rooney (36)
  - Thierry Henry (32)
  - Alan Shearer (31)
  - Kevin De Bruyne (28)

• Ederson is the only goalkeeper in Premier League history to record four assists in a single season. His seven assists across his career are two more than any other goalkeeper in Premier League history.

• Crystal Palace (14) have scored the most set-piece goals in the Premier League this season.

• Most goals scored from outside the box in the Premier League since Pep Guardiola took charge of Manchester City in 2016:
  - Kevin De Bruyne (28)
  - Harry Kane (21)
  - James Ward-Prowse (20)
  - James Maddison (20)

• Most times a side has scored 5+ goals in a Premier League game since Pep Guardiola took charge at the start of the 16/17 season:
  - Manchester City (39)
  - Arsenal (20)
  - Liverpool (19)
  - Tottenham (17)

Game Stats:

Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace

• xG: 4.41 - 1.4

• xThreat: 1.55 - 1.17

• Possession: 67.5% - 32.5%

• Field Tilt: 83.2% - 16.8%

• Penalty Box Shots: 15 - 5

• Deep Entries: 14 - 5

• PPDA: 7.3 - 44.1

• High Turnovers: 8 - 2

Four full 90s for Nico Gonzalez in the last eight Premier League matches, starting seven, no other Manchester City midfielder has completed more in that time. Nico O'Reilly starts three consecutive matches for the first time in his Manchester City career. Savinho misses back-to-back Premier League matches for the first time since January 25th. Jack Grealish hasn't started back-to-back Premier League matches since October 2024. Rico Lewis has not started an away Premier League match since Leicester City, on the 29th of December 2024.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Here is how the teams lined up for the match as Nico Gonzalez came in for Bernardo Silva, Rico Lewis for Matheus Nunes, and James McAtee for Phil Foden.

Which meant that we saw the same setup used against Manchester United return with the personnel changes, and hopefully, the team prepared to make the quick passes into the pockets that Guardiola spoke about after the last match.

4-2-2-2 of sorts, where either full-back could push higher up to provide an overload on either side. De Bruyne as a false nine with McAtee and Marmoush either side, adding some dynamic movement into the half-space, leaving the CCB of Palace without someone to cover but runners to attack behind him if he steps out at the wrong moment. Gundogan and Kovacic to support arriving later into the box.

E. Eze 8’ 0-1

Crystal Palace open the scoring by shifting it over to their right-hand side under little pressure on the ball, playing it quick behind the backline that they overloaded, and the low cross from Sarr across the box finds Eze at the back-post.

It’s 5v4 against the City backline since Munoz and Mitchell push up high on either side to join the front free. No pressure on the Palace CBs from Marmoush/De Bruyne/McAtee, and then neither of the City midfielders drops to support the back four.

C. Richards 21’ 0-2

Palace then gets the second goal from a corner, which they lead the Premier League this season for, as Richards beats Ruben Dias in the duel. Poor effort from him to win the header, letting Richards get in front and not competing for it as well as Ederson’s attempt to come punch it away.

Nico O’Reilly’s mistake with a long pass leads to the corner, and he also loses the ball trying to take on a couple of players, leading to the third goal for Palace, which was disallowed as offside. Big moment in the match.

But it’s not like Manchester City didn’t have good chances in the first thirty minutes of the match with McAtee's (5’) shot, the break Marmoush (13’) through on goal, and a big miss by Gundogan (24’).

K. De Bruyne 33’

The start of the comeback was De Bruyne winning a free kick in a great position just outside the middle of the box after being fouled by Kamara. He shoots low into the far left corner, Nico Gonzalez ducking as the ball comes, and Henderson is too late to react.

O. Marmoush 36’

With the team setup, Manchester City can overload the opposition backline on either side, and it leaves Lacroix as the spare man in the middle without anyone to track. For the second goal, he jumps onto Gundogan, leaving the space for James McAtee to run into.

Marmoush does very well to pounce on the loose ball and finish it after Gundogan misses the volley. But it has to be mentioned that Kovacic picks out the initial pass into the box; Guardiola has been talking about needing to see more of that after the United match. James McAtee does a great job with his movement, holding off the defender, and making a back-post cross.

At half-time, Glasner swapped Mateta for Will Hughes, saying after the match he intended to deal with the midfield overload, better cover the pockets, and in hindsight it was a mistake. Manchester City were still able to create overloads, and it reduced the pressure applied to the backline/pivots, making it easier to find the players in the pockets.

M. Kovacic 47’

From Manchester City, we saw Ilkay Gundogan drop deeper on the ball to pull the Palace midfielder (Hughes) with him, providing an overload in the 1st phase buildup, and let Nico O’Reilly have more freedom to move higher. Hughes had to follow Gundogan, so it just opened up tonnes of space for O’Reilly, and instead of solving an issue, Glasner made it easier for City to exploit their back line.

Those runs for Nico O'Reilly were there throughout the United match, not picked out enough, but this one was against Crystal Palace. Through into the box, cuts it back to De Bruyne, who's able to turn before laying it off for Kovacic to score.

J. McAtee 56’

It’s Crystal Palace time to not put enough pressure on the ball, with the two CBs splitting apart and only two forwards now in Sarr and Eze. Nobody applies any pressure to Ederson. He steps forward and provides the pass we're expecting to see executed perfectly, as he showed many times this season, but it's the movement against James McAtee that stands out.

Ederson (71’) came off for Ortega in the second half with a recurring injury issue we’ve seen during this season.

N. O’Reilly 79’

Cross from McAtee into the box, flicked on and Nico O'Reilly hits it first time to score his first Premier League goal.

In the final ten minutes of the match, we saw several changes as Grealish, Doku, Savinho, and Bobb came on. The brightest being the Oscar Bobb cameo, which gave us more evidence of the big season he could have had without the injury.

One of the stats that I mentioned in the previous newsletter was how poor Manchester were at turning their final third entries into box entries. Compare that to this week, with the same approach, you can see the difference the small changes of personnel/individual performances have made.

Now we look at the midfielders who were looking to make passes into the half-spaces and make the next pass from inside those spaces. You’ll notice a big improvement from Gundogan and Kovacic, as well as the difference Nico Gonzalez made in place of Bernardo Silva.

vs Manchester United  
Passes into Zone 14/Half-Spaces by midfielder
- Mateo Kovacic (11)  
- Ilkay Gundogan (4) 
- Bernardo Silva (2)  

Passes from Zone14/Half-Spaces by midfielder
- Ilkay Gundogan (10) 
- Mateo Kovacic (9)  
- Bernardo Silva (3) 

vs Crystal Palace  
Passes into Zone 14/Half-Spaces by midfielder
- Nico Gonzalez (15) 
- Mateo Kovacic (16) 
- Ilkay Gundogan (11) 

Passes from Zone14/Half-Spaces by midfielder
- Nico Gonzalez (16) 
- Ilkay Gundogan (15) 
- Mateo Kovacic (12)

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Moving Forward

Safe to say that Omar Marmoush has had an impact since arriving at the club, was worth buying in January, and has (so far) handled the pressure playing without Haaland well. I wouldn’t get lost on his position, rather focus on the skillset he is providing the team with his runs in-behind, movement in the pockets, and shooting.

Until the end of the season, we’re going to see the debate around Kevin De Bruyne shift depending on whether we get a match like this one against Crystal Palace or like he was against United (A). I completely understand the sentiment that he’s always able to create a chance, even at his age, but for me, he’s physically past it, and it’s the right time to move on. To the next attacking midfielder the club is after in the summer, and to the other young players in the squad.

Based on his performance against Crystal Palace, I’d like to see James McAtee be given another start in the next match with Everton. Involved in plenty of the goals, frequently made good runs in the half-space to give Palace defenders problems, and got his reward with the goal. It won’t be easy to score against Everton, but James McAtee does have a knack for getting himself a goal one way or another.

Next up for Manchester City is an away trip to take on Everton on Saturday, the 19th of April at 15:00 (GMT). In 2025, Everton has only lost three Premier League matches out of fourteen. All of them with one goal. Against Bournemouth, Liverpool, and Aston Villa. That’s going to be a tough away trip.