What happened to Pep Guardiola could have been much worse. After his side had already fallen behind twice against a Crystal Palace side brimming with renewed confidence, the Manchester City coach ensured that Erling Haaland ended his minor drought with his 13th Premier League goal of the season before Rico Lewis equalized again, ending his team’s five defeats in consecutive away games.

But if this was another afternoon to forget for the strangely underperforming Kyle Walker, whose errors helped Daniel Muñoz and Maxence Lacroix secure the lead for Oliver Glasner’s team, City will be glad to have emerged with something after Lewis The second yellow card was shown in the later stages.

Guardiola had appeared lost in thought as he headed straight for the dugout upon his arrival at Selhurst Park a full 90 minutes before kick-off, just as he did at Anfield last weekend before the defeat to Liverpool.

The City boss said in his pre-match interview that his side needed to “adapt as quickly as possible with a good mentality” after they were forced to miss the trip to south London due to injuries to defenders Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji. But when Lacroix headed in Will Hughes’ corner just before the hour, he must have feared the worst after ending a six-match winless run against Nottingham Forest in midweek.

Guardiola will be disappointed that City were unable to beat Palace after Lewis – who played at left-back in Aké’s absence – scored the equalizer before seeing red, although there were signs they had rediscovered at least some of their brilliance in attack .

However, defense, and Walker in particular, remains a major problem in a week that sees City face Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday before next weekend’s Manchester derby. Glasner will know that on another day his team could have claimed a second win in a row had they taken their chances.

Palace had scored fewer home goals than any other team in the Premier League this season, with just four, but it took them less than four minutes to make the breakthrough against a City defense clearly lacking cohesion and confidence. Walker was guilty of playing Muñoz onside after he was tricked by a Hughes through ball and the Colombian scored the second goal of his Palace career after the late equalizer against Newcastle here last week.

Only Dean Henderson’s header prevented City from hitting straight back as Haaland raced onto Kevin De Bruyne’s pass. But when they play as a double pivot with Ilkay Gündogan and Bernardo Silva they are always vulnerable to danger and a poor pass from Rúben Dias, miscontrolled by the German midfielder, almost brought Palace into the game for a second when Ismaïla Sarr was out the corner shot over the crossbar, that’s how it happened.

Gündogan was extremely unlucky to hit the post with a brilliant, instinctive volley from the edge of the box, but Savinho was unable to convert the rebound. Palace would have been made to pay when Lewis lost the ball to Muñoz and Jean-Philippe Mateta fed Jefferson Lerma in the penalty area, but Dias came to his side’s aid with a timely block – one of several the Portuguese made in the first half. The importance of the moment was underlined when Haaland outpaced Marc Guéhi and headed in a deep cross from Matheus Nunes after half an hour, his first goal since the defeat at Brighton last month.

A swirling wind in south London meant conditions were less than ideal, although City looked far more confident in possession with De Bruyne once again in charge. But when Silva gave the ball away to Hughes and City conceded a corner 11 minutes after the break, it was Walker once again caught napping as the England defender was overwhelmed and Lacroix fired his header home from point-blank range.

Guardiola looked concerned but, much to his relief, his side were back on level terms when Lewis fired the ball into the goal at the end of a brilliant passing sequence between De Bruyne and Silva. Savinho and Haaland both came close to sealing victory for City as they made a save to deny the Brazilian’s deflected shot. Lewis was given his marching orders for a late attack on Trevoh Chalobah that will only worsen Guardiola’s defensive headache.