Not only did Palace avoid that unwanted ‘club record’, which would have come our way if Man City beat us once again in the Premier League, by avoiding defeat against the reigning Champions we only went and beat them on Easter Monday.
This two-one win at Selhurst Park moves us up to 11th with the challenge now to finish in, or around, the top 10 and that isn’t something that looked too likely until Alan Pardew arrived. As for Man City, they had already dropped to fourth and that’s where they stay nine-points behind Chelsea having played a game more. I think we can say they’ll clearly not defend their title this season!
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We could, and should, have got off to a great start with Zaha given a chance within a minute. A Kelly cross into Zaha, obviously a target for abuse given his previous with Man United, was on that he couldn’t hit the target with.
Speroni, who continues to impress and show why he is worthy of another year – at least – at Selhurst Park to make two fine saves from Silva but when he was beaten by Aguero the post saved us! Man City again denied by the woodwork with only Southampton, I’m sure I heard this somewhere, denied by the frame of the goal more….
Two goals either side of half time turned this game…. Firstly, when Ledley flicked on for Dann he was denied by Hart but that left Murray (34) with a simple tap in, just past the half hour mark, to send us into the break one-up. Puncheon’s (48) fine freekick minutes into the second half, when he curled past Hart to double our lead left us in complete control. This freekick was awarded when Fernandinho brought down Murray.
Did we get lucky when Fernandinho saw an effort hit Murray’s hand? Maybe so, with him denied a goal himself with McArthur clearing off the line before Toure (78) gave Man City hope with a powerful effort late on.
It wasn’t enough, with Speroni recovering to deny Toure an equaliser, as a fourth successive Premier League was suffered by our visitors with us winning a hat-trick of games for the first time in the league this season.
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