No Erling Haaland, no Rayan Cherki and no Jérémy Doku from the start. The result: a canter to victory against Crystal Palace that takes Manchester City back to within two points of Arsenal after 36 games each.
The good news for Pep Guardiola is that a much-changed team before Saturday’s FA Cup final did the business, with Phil Foden displaying the magic that can make him a force. The poorer tidings are that Arsenal host Burnley on Monday and the chances of them dropping points to the relegated visitors are slim.
All City can do in the title race is keep winning, as they did here – Savinho scoring on 84 minutes to follow Antoine Semenyo’s and Omar Marmoush’s first-half strikes – and keep hoping for a favour from Burnley or Palace, who host Arsenal in the season finale a week on Sunday.
As Foden said: “We’ve seen a lot of things can happen on the final day. I’ve experienced it many times when the game doesn’t go your way. We just have to keep pushing and doing our part.”
Yet it may be over by then: if Arsenal defeat Burnley on Monday, and City fail to do the same at Bournemouth the next day, then Mikel Arteta’s team will be champions.
Guardiola’s changes ran to six from the 3-0 win against Brentford and featured Josko Gvardiol, who had not played since early January owing to a broken leg. The Croat was part of a slumbering rearguard when Jean-Philippe Mateta’s early strike was ruled out thanks to Brennan Johnson being offside.
Johnson carried a threat, as shown by a run down the left flank that put Yéremy Pino in and shooting. Will Hughes took the resulting corner, Chris Richards rose and headed over, and City had a second warning.
Rayan Aït-Nouri, another of Guardiola’s fresh personnel, was lined up by his manager on the left as one of the two – Savinho was the other – in advance of Bernardo Silva and Foden in midfield.
From this unfamiliar berth the Algerian let fly but was aimless – similar to his team at this point, in an echo of the recent uneven displays at Burnley and Everton.
City lacked zip in their movement and imagination. The ball went side to side or forward and then back. That was until Foden’s intervention, which was sublime and showed what City have missed during his long months without form.
Silva, on the right, passed infield to Matheus Nunes, who found Foden. With his back to goal, a quick glance told him Semenyo lurked ahead. What followed was a backheel that placed the ball into his teammate’s path: a lethal swish of the boot later and Dean Henderson was beaten.
It was vindication for Guardiola, who wheeled away in delight. Yet moments later he berated his team for ceding Tyrick Mitchell enough space to tingle Gianluigi Donnarumma’s fingers. Guardiola was far happier when Marmoush doubled the score. Aït-Nouri floated the ball in from the right, Foden touched it on, and the Egyptian crashed home.
City were 2-0 up and cruising now, exactly as Guardiola wished in the continued pursuit of Arsenal. The sparkling Foden was pleased, too, as this was a certifiable return to his best. The 25-year-old went close to a third assist of the contest when dropping the ball on to Gvardiol’s head but the defender’s effort was palmed to safety spectacularly by Henderson. At the interval City wandered off far happier than the visitors, whose threat had been intermittent only.
Oliver Glasner’s lineup showed Pino for Ismaïla Sarr, plus Jefferson Lerma and Hughes for Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada.
This, too, was an understrength team, yet even if this was with an eye on the Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano the Austrian had to consider a reshuffle.
A downpour that began in the first half continued and made the surface greasy, which suited City’s better football. Yet when one slick sequence had Gvardiol galloping forward the left-back missed an easy pass to thread in Marmoush. That was along the ground, but Foden also spurned the chance to release Marmoush via a lofted ball that was hit too heavy and was easy for Henderson to mop up.
Guardiola’s gameplan next had Gvardiol replaced by Nathan Aké and Nunes by the in-form Doku. The Belgian soon linked up in a move that finished with Marmoush spraying wide as Glasner made a triple change.
Wharton, Jørgen Strand Larsen and Sarr entered for Hughes, Mateta and Pino. Sarr, immediately, was put through but could only dribble the ball into Donnarumma’s gloves.
As Glasner said: “We have to accept that City were too good for us, if you want to get a point here you need a top performance and we could not deliver today.”
