December 22 2018

Andros Townsend

Crystal Palace produced one of the scalps of the season with a 3-2 success at league champions Manchester City.

The game also had arguably the season's best goal with Eagles winger Andros Townsend lashing home an unstoppable volley from 30 yards.

And the three points lifts Palace six points above the drop zone and that little bit of breathing space as the team heads for the halfway point of the campaign.

Roy Hodgson's side defended deep for the vast majority of the game as City had all of the possession but couldn't unpick the Palace defence.

Keeper Vicente Guaita pushed Fabien Delph's shot over and Leroy Sane hit the side-netting and it wasn't a surprise to see City score the opener on 27 minutes.

Delph swung in a cross from the left and Ilkay Gundogan lost his marker Jeffrey Schlupp to head into the back of the net.

Schlupp atoned for his error by netting an equaliser just six minutes later after a Palace counter-attack involving Wilfried Zaha, Townsend and McArthur ended up with Schlupp firing into the bottom corner from just inside the area.

The majority of the Etihad Stadium was shocked into silence just two minutes after that when City's defence cleared a Patrick van Aanholt free-kick as far as Townsend who rifled into the top corner from all of 30 yards.

Six minutes after the break, Palace incredibly added a third goal to stun Pep Guardiola's team. Aaron Wan-Bissaka's cross from the right was nodded onto the post by Townsend, and as Max Meyer chased the rebound, Kyle Walker tripped the German in the area for a penalty. Luka Milivojevic converted the spot kick for 3-1.

Despite the introduction of attacking trio Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez, City were unable to breach the Eagles defence.

Sane went close with a free-kick that smacked against the upright. And they were given a lifeline in the 85th minute when De Bruyne's right-sided cross looped over Guaita and into the net.

Gabriel Jesus headed a gilt-edged chance over the bar in stoppage time but Palace secured their first win at City for 28 years and ended the defending champions' perfect home record in the league this season.

Man City: Ederson, Walker, Otamendi (Aguero 50), Laporte, Stones, Delph (De Bruyne 62), B. Silva, Gundogan, Sterling (Mahrez 69), Sane, Jesus.

Not used: Muric, Danilo, Zinchenko, Foden.

Palace: Guaita, Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt, McArthur, Milivojevic, Schlupp, Meyer (Puncheon 90), Townsend, Zaha (Ayew 88).

Not used: Speroni, Ward, Dann, Riedewald, Sorloth.

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