8 hours ago
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Manchester City picked up an important win at Crystal Palace as they continue to spoil the records of other teams.
Many conclusions from Manchester City's win over Crystal Palace at the weekend appear to be centred on looks being deceptive. There are words to the effect of: A 3-0 victory away from home against a tough opponent looks good, but this was hardly the performance of an all-conquering side - just look at the expected goals.
That is true, to an extent. Even if the xG seems weirdly skewed to include Palace shots that would have been flagged offside if the linesman wasn't waiting for VAR to do his work for him, Yeremy Pino could have changed the game if he had scored its first goal rather than lashing against the crossbar in the first half.
Pep Guardiola pointed out that Phil Foden was well below his best despite scoring a crucial second, and reiterated his notes from the midweek win over Real Madrid that this team are far from where they need to be in the final months of the season if they are to win silverware. He did also make an important point though that is easily lost when trying to place this City team among previous Guardiola sides.
"When you win in the past you believe the past was always perfect - always brilliant, always red carpets, always easy," he said. "When we won 100 points and all the titles that I won't name because it would be boring and too late to go home, we had a lot of games like today."
He's absolutely right, and that should be enough for people to be content that City don't need to be amazing at this point of the season. It is enough that they look to be growing and are nicely positioned in the Premier League and Champions League.
Even if they are not setting new records every week in the Premier League, it is enough for now that they are spoiling the records of others. Crystal Palace had the second-best defensive record in the division, conceding just 12 goals in 15 games before City turned up on Sunday and scored a quarter of that in just 90 minutes.
Less than a fortnight before that, Fulham had one of the best defensive records at home only for Guardiola's side to arrive and score five. They conceded four so it wasn't anything like a perfect performance, yet the point remains that they were able to break their opponents in a way that nobody else to this point had been able to.
The streaks will keep coming - for example, City head to Sunderland on New Year's Day, who have won five and drawn the other three of their eight home games back in the top flight to date. A performance may not give much optimism to head into 2026 with but it will still be notable if the Blues are able to do what Newcastle, Arsenal, and Aston Villa have all failed to do in the north-east.
City need to improve to win the league, but part of being the best team over 38 matches is being able to achieve things that others are unable to. There has already been plenty of evidence of that this season, with Palace just the latest example.
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