Manchester City came from two goals down to beat Crystal Palace 5-2 at the Etihad Stadium and move into the top four.
Goals from Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards put Palace two up early in the game with Eze having another ruled out for offside that would have given Oliver Glasner’s side a three-goal advantage. As it was, Man City rallied well to turn the game on its head.
The impressive Kevin De Bruyne scored from a free-kick to pull one back and Omar Marmoush lashed in a quickfire second soon after. Mateo Kovacic scored 77 seconds after the restart before James McAtee, on his first league start for City, made it four.
The fifth came when Nico O’Reilly, another academy graduate, saw his volley deflected in for his first Premier League goal. Glasner will be frustrated by how easy Palace, without captain Marc Guehi but previously unbeaten away in 2025, made it for City in the end.
Their charge up the table suffers a setback with this defeat, their focus perhaps turning to the FA Cup now and the enticing prospect of a possible City rematch in the final. As for Guardiola’s side, this win moves them within two points of Nottingham Forest in third.
De Bruyne stars again for Man City
From a City perspective, the catalyst for the comeback was undoubtedly De Bruyne. The atmosphere was tense when he stood over that free-kick with his side two behind and team-mates nervous. With one swing of his famous right boot, the mood shifted.
He was involved in the second goal and set up the third, revelling in the advanced role that he has been afforded in the absence of Erling Haaland with Marmoush happier drifting wide. At 33, he is past his peak. But City will still miss him in the big moments.
Guardiola praises De Bruyne
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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says he has so much gratitude towards Kevin De Bruyne after he inspired them to a 5-2 win over Crystal Palace.
Pep Guardiola praised De Bruyne afterwards. “He played fantastic.” Referring to the goal, the City head coach said: “He helped us break this momentum that was not good.”
Asked if the Belgian midfielder would be missed, he added: “Exceptional players are missed. The gratitude is huge. I know he can deliver and happy because he helped us a lot. He fought a lot and with the ball is so clever. He helped us a lot to win that game.”
There was praise too for the contribution of McAtee. “He scored one goal, he could have scored four. If a player could score four it is because they have the sense. Without Erling and Phil, we need that. Today he did not deliver [the four goals] but he can.”
Guardiola’s general mood was of a man who likes what he is seeing from his team again, the way that they are moving the ball and the opposition around the pitch. Even without many key players due to injury, there is a sense of City’s style of play being restored.
“Since the Bournemouth game in the FA Cup, we are back,” he insisted, adding: “At 2-0 down it was not easy but we stick with the plan and the players played really good. We need points to qualify for the Champions League so it was massively important.”
Man City rally but look vulnerable
The game hinged on the moment Eze thought he had put Palace 3-0 up. The England player oozed class throughout and he finished with aplomb but will surely be frustrated to have let City off the hook because there was no great reason for him to be offside.
City were wide open anyway and had he held his run it would have made little difference to the outcome. That will be Glasner’s regret but Guardiola’s concern. As promising as City’s play was offensively, this was another alarming defensive showing from his side.
It was not so long ago that Guardiola had decided that stringing four natural central defenders across the back line was the best way to achieve success but with Manuel Akanji, John Stones and Nathan Ake all out, he was relying on two young full-backs.
Rico Lewis and O’Reilly have plenty of talent but were often positioned high up the pitch and the protection was just not there for Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. Even so, the simplicity with which Richards nodded in from a corner suggests the issues run deeper.
Glasner regrets tactical switch
The Palace boss brought on Will Hughes at half-time, removing his top scorer Jean-Philippe Mateta. He insisted afterwards that he did not regret removing Mateta. “I think he can do better than he did first half, he lost too many duels,” said Glasner.
“The mistake I made was to change the system, not to change JP.” He confirmed it was a tactical move. “It was a tactical decision but I have to say it was the wrong decision to go to 3-5-2. We wanted to control the middle.” But it backfired almost immediately.
Glasner did have a tactical warning to Guardiola at the end, however, given that the two teams could yet meet in the FA Cup final at Wembley next month. “I said to Pep that if we meet again you cannot play this system because we will solve it,” he revealed.
Man City’s win in stats
- This is the eighth time that Manchester City have won a Premier League game having been two or more goals down, with only Manchester United (14) and Tottenham Hotspur (9) doing so more times in the competition’s history.
- Crystal Palace have lost a Premier League game in which they led by two or more goals for the first time since August 2022, with that defeat also coming away at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City (lost 4-2).
- Manchester City have scored 5+ goals in a single Premier League match on 63 different occasions, five more than any other team in the competition, with 39 of those coming under Pep Guardiola.
- Kevin De Bruyne has both scored and assisted in 28 different Premier League games, with only Mohamed Salah (42), Wayne Rooney (36), Thierry Henry (32) and Alan Shearer (31) doing so more often in the competition’s history.
- This was just the third time that a side has won by a three-goal margin despite trailing by two goals in the Premier League, after Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur in February 2012 and Manchester United against Spurs in April 2009.
- Ederson has provided four assists in the Premier League this term, twice as many as any other goalkeeper has managed across a single season in the competition. His assist in this match was the eighth by a goalkeeper in 2024-25, the joint-most in a Premier League campaign along with 1992-93 and 2007-08.
- Kevin De Bruyne became just the sixth player to score 30 goals from outside the penalty area in the Premier League, while he netted his fifth direct free-kick in the competition and first since October 2022 against Leicester City.