David Silva struck twice as Manchester City, playing without a recognised striker, cruised to a 3-0 victory over a troubled Crystal Palace.
MANCHESTER, England — A trio of observations on Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday in the Premier League.
1. Make no mistake, the title race is very much on
David Silva rose above everyone else and Manchester City have suddenly risen level with Chelsea at the top of the table courtesy of this win over Crystal Palace.
That may just be for the time being, given that Jose Mourinho’s side have a game in hand against Stoke City on Monday, but it is also strikingly quick how City have gone from eight points away to touching distance. The drama and trouble of a few weeks ago now seem a distant memory. Far from a fine side who still look fragile, City now possess an impressive durability and resilience.
That, just like against Bayern Munich and Roma — if obviously on a different scale — was again emphasised at the start of the second half here. At that point, with Crystal Palace doing a creditable job of keeping City at bay, and the absence of a proper striker apparently blunting the champions, it looked like it was going to be a return to the slips of earlier in the season.
It also would have seemed very “2012-13 City” for the side to slip up, having done so well to first close the gap. The frustration was growing. Any semblance of free football wasn’t. There just wasn’t enough space. But by adding a bit of physicality to their finesse, City found that space. The brilliant Pablo Zabaleta tore down the right before setting up Silva to score through a deflection.
If that was some way lucky, the second was luscious and came down the other line. This time it was Aleksandar Kolarov supplying the surge and pass, and Silva again finishing. This time he didn’t need the deflection.
City no longer needed to worry after Yaya Toure claimed a brilliant third from a blistering counterattack. City are also now expertly countering Chelsea. This title race is very much on. The champions are on form, and willing to get stuck in.
Manchester City initially struggled without a recognised striker, but once David Silva opened the scoring, the champions were in control.
2. Silva shines as City strike without strikers
City may have found a new resilience, but they also found many alternative ways to open teams up here.
It had seemed like one of those perfectly set-up tactical case studies, with a striker-light team forced to face a massed defence. There were frequent occasions in the first half when Palace had 10 men around their own box with barely any City presence among them.
Worse, it’s not like Palace were doing what so many sides fell victim to when Spain played David Silva as a false nine, by coming out to track. They were sticking to their plan and forcing City to come up with new approaches of their own.
It was James Milner this time in the notional striker position, but rather than offering an outlet, his running allowed the perfect decoy. There was a sign of what City were planning late in the first half. In what was one of the finest pieces of technique in the game, Toure suddenly flicked the on-rushing Pablo Zabaleta through, seemingly setting up a replica of his goal against Sunderland.
This time, though, it was wide. Zabaleta had remarked after the 2-0 win over Roma that he had only once scored more than three goals in a season, at San Lorenzo in 2004-05, and he stayed on that figure here. If he wasn’t going to score, though, City had at least discovered the right route.
From the start of the second half, with Palace looking more and more solid in the centre of the box, City simply just went around and behind. The space their full-backs had was maximised, allowing both Zabaleta and Kolarov to burst through before feeding those waiting on the penalty spot.
The absence of a striker had suddenly turned into a virtue. Of course, they’d always rather have one of Sergio Aguero or Edin Dzeko, but they also at least have a viable option beyond just going out and buying in January.
3. Palace in real danger
Perhaps the most frustrating thing for Palace is that had they played anything like they did in the second half of last season, they could have got another big result to go with the many from that period. Instead, while they offer the same general approach and superficial shape as under Tony Pulis, seems to be something deeper missing. While the easy response here is that Neil Warnock has never been as good a manager as his predecessor, the reasons for that are relevant.
Palace couldn’t maintain the same cast-iron discipline and also weren’t as forceful in attack. For all the often correct perceptions of Pulis, he had seemed to find a way to free up Yannick Bolasie’s live-wire brilliance. Here, we only saw the usual nice touches from the winger but nothing to suggest he might be capable of winning the game.
Instead, Palace weren’t able to do much more other than defend deep, which was illustrated when they tried to get something. Once the pitch opened up, there was nothing there. That was illustrated with the game’s final goal, a supreme City counter-attack of pleasing power, which Toure thundered home. The champions are looking forward again, but Palace must ensure they do more than always look out from the back.
They’re in danger.