Draw ends Man City’s winning run

London, Dec. 31: Ederson stopped Luka Milivojevic’s late penalty to save Manchester City from defeat on Sunday but a 0- 0 draw at Crystal Palace brought the Premier League leaders’ recordbreaking 18 match winning run to an end.

Milivojevic was presented with the chance to seal a memorable victory for Roy Hodgson’s relegationthreatened side when Wilfried Zaha was brought down by Raheem Sterling in the 90th minute.

But the Palace winger struck his spot- kick too close to Ederson, allowing the City keeper to preserve his side’s 21- game unbeaten start to the league campaign.

However, City’s failure to score in a league game for the first time since last April meant they fell short in their bid to equal Bayern Munich 19- game winning run of four years ago, the longest in Europe’s five major leagues.

And City’s afternoon was further soured when Kevin de Bruyne was stretchered off with what appeared to be a serious looking injury immediately after the spot- kick following an ugly challenge by Palace substitute Jason Puncheon.

Hodgson claimed before the game there was “no magic formula” to competing with City, insisting his Palace side’s hopes of getting something from the game hinged on working hard, and defending well while maintaining an attacking threat.

The manager could be satisfied that during the opening 45 minutes his players stuck to the prescribed plan to the extent that by the half- time break, the frustration among Guardiola’s players was plain to see.

City had started well enough, piecing together a series of fluent early moves that suggested the home defence would face a long and testing afternoon.

However, there was an early sign the visitors might not be at their best when a breakdown in communication between Eliaquim Mangala and Ederson led to the keeper directing an attempted clearance against his centreback, presenting Christian Benteke with an early opportunity.

UNITED SLIP TO THIRD Manchester United’s dismal run of results in December continued with a third consecutive draw as they were held 0- 0 at home to Southampton on Saturday, dropping to third in the standings.

United had top scorer Romelu Lukaku carried off on a stretcher early in the game and looked stricken of any thrust or creativity in attack, ending the month with four wins from nine matches in all competitions and without a victory in their last four.

Paul Pogba had a late strike ruled out as he knocked Nemanja Matic’s rolling shot in from an offside position when the ball looked destined to hit the post. — Agencies