A STRIKING OVERSIGHT
City’s glaring lack of a Kane or Haaland starting to bite
PEP GUARDIOLA knew at the start of this season there would be times when his failure to land a striker for Manchester City in the summer would be used as a stick with which to beat him.
Times when a host of chances go begging for the boot or the head of a Harry Kane or an Erling Haaland.
His counter-argument has been to point to matches when City have carved open sides with abandon in a whizz of false nines and rampaging midfielders.
Yet, after a third league game of the season without a goal, against a Crystal Palace side well-drilled by Patrick Vieira, Guardiola was given something to think about.
After seeing City create little and fail to convert what little they did, he accepted City have a problem that needs fixing.
The City manager said: “After it went 1-0 we created not much. With 10 players we have to be precise, we have to be good in those positions. Unfortunately, we could not do it.
“We created the chances a lot at West Ham and we conceded few. Today, except for five or 10 minutes, it was the same.
“We produce more but yes we have to score goals. We know it but we are able to score four or five in games so we are a team who are able to do it.
“Against teams that defend so deep sometimes it is difficult to find the right moment to punish them.”
Just three shots on target in a home game against a side they were expected to sweep aside made for a poor afternoon for the Premier League Champions.
Following their exit from the Carabao Cup without scoring at West Ham, it added to a poor week for Guardiola’s men.
This setback can be marked down to a disciplined display from a Palace side driven on by impressive Chelsea loanee Conor Gallagher but containing several good individual performances.
Aymeric Laporte did not helped when he was sent off at the tailend of the first half after hauling down Wilfried Zaha in what was seen as a goalscoring position midway into City’s half which he probably hoped might see him get away with a yellow card.
And City failed to break down Palace, with Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish all, to varying degrees, off the pace.
Wilfried Zaha’s early strike – a slightly scuffed finish with his left foot that Ederson might have saved – was a jolt that City expected to overcome.
But a shot from Rodri which gathered safely in Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita’s breadbasket was the closest they came to equalising when the numbers were even.
Laporte saw red for a foul on Zaha, a verdict which Guardiola felt might have been punished by a caution on another day.nCity, who switched to a back three, thought they had equalised when Gabriel Jesus bundled in Foden’s floated back-post cross on the hour.
But the latter was offside in receiving the ball and Palace’s lead stood.
They doubled it after 88 minutes and were value for it too, Michael Olise and Zaha given the freedom of the Etihad and Gallagher finishing off.