Manchester City’s Premier League title defense is in jeopardy after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

With the Merseyside derby postponed to lunchtime, City had the opportunity to reduce the gap to league leaders Liverpool to six points with a win, but in the end they needed an equalizer from Erling Haaland and then Rico Lewis – later controversially dismissed was placed – to even deduct a point from Palace. City are now eight points behind the leaders and in fourth place.

City’s run of five consecutive away defeats is over but that statistic will be of little comfort to Pep Guardiola as his side failed to build on their midweek win against Nottingham Forest.

Liverpool can extend their lead over the defending champions, while Arsenal and Chelsea, both a point ahead of City, can move ahead when they play live London derbies Sky Sports on Sunday.

Amid the cold, wind and rain of south London, City were immediately confronted when Daniel Munoz scored Palace’s early opener after a clever pass from Will Hughes exposed the visitors’ defence. After scoring his first goal for the club last weekend, he has now scored twice at Selhurst.

Haaland’s equalizer on the half-hour came just moments after Ruben Dias decisively blocked Jefferson Lerma’s shot in the box and City’s defense was nervous and lucky not to be punished again when the unmarked Ismaila Sarr shot over from the edge of the box.

But with Kevin De Bruyne back in the starting line-up for City, there was danger in the final third as Belgian Haaland played in a one-on-one that Dean Henderson somehow blocked with his face before Ilkay Gundogan volleyed into the net Shot off the post and Savinho sent the follow-up wastefully wide.

Haaland’s header from a cross from Matheus Nunes – who continued his streak of scoring against Palace in the Premier League – should have been the platform for City to move on and assert their authority, but their possession was early in the second half ineffective Instead, they were behind again when Lacroix jumped over the stranded Kyle Walker and scored Palace’s second shot.

City were at their best for the second equaliser, with De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva involved and Lewis setting up a cleverly disguised finish. It was his third goal in the Premier League and all of them came against Palace.

But he won’t remember it fondly. After receiving a yellow card for dissent, he was mistakenly sent off by referee Rob Jones when Trevoh Chalobah caught him in a collision. The VAR could not intervene because it was a yellow card.

Apart from 10, City managed nothing special in the final moments. The win over Forest gave City hope – but it was a painful reminder that they still have a lot of work to do to get back to the level needed to compete in this title race.

As for Palace, it is now just one defeat in eight in all competitions and things are looking good for Oliver Glasner’s side, who are in 16th place, four points above the relegation zone.

More to come…

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