We squandered goals, admits Delph
FABIAN Delph believes Manchester City’s wastefulness in front of goal against Crystal Palace was the reason behind their first league defeat at home this season.
The Blues squandered the opportunity to keep pace with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table with the 3-2 reverse against Palace, with Liverpool maintaining a four-point gap ahead of City at the top of the league.
Delph provided the assist for Ilkay Gundogan’s opener as City started well, but Palace scored three goals in 18 minutes to race into the lead.
Kevin De Bruyne’s 75th-minute strike was nothing more than a consolation and Delph insists that on another day the Blues would have been out of sight following their dominant spell early on.
“Obviously the result is a setback. We have lost but we are only looking at ourselves game to game,” the left-back, who captained the Blues, told the BBC.
“We had a few chances which we have put away in the past, but fair play to Crystal Palace - they were stubborn and organised.
“It’s hard to analyse and we will go back to the drawing board and look at it. We started slowly and the ball wasn’t zipping about.”
An injury to Fernandinho saw John Stones make his first start as a midfielder in a Premier League game for the Blues and, despite Stones’ unconvincing showing, Pep Guardiola insisted he had no regrets.
“When you win I am a genius, when you lose I am not good,” he said.
“Dinho is injured, yesterday he felt again that problem. John played so good in Leicester so I wanted to give another option for the long balls. They are a strong team in the air and we decided to play him and He played good except one ball in the beginning.
“I admire, I give credit to people who try and adapt to positions they are not used to. In the second half I used Gundogan and De Bruyne in that position but that is when the game is more open and everyone defend deep.
“The game is more about counterattacks and in that situation it is not necessary to be so precise in the way we attack.”