Omar Marmoush turned and shot to make it 2-0 to Manchester City against Crystal Palace. The goal capped a dominant performance from Pep Guardiola's side, who closed the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal to just two points with two games remaining.
Team Changes and Early Dominance
Without Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, and Jérémy Doku from the start, City produced a canter to victory. The result takes them back to within two points of Arsenal after 36 games each. Guardiola made six changes from the 3-0 win against Brentford, including Josko Gvardiol, who returned from a broken leg sustained in early January.
The early stages saw City slumber, with Jean-Philippe Mateta's strike ruled out for offside. Brennan Johnson threatened down the left, setting up Yéremy Pino for a shot. Will Hughes's corner found Chris Richards, who headed over. City had been warned.
Foden's Spark
Rayan Aït-Nouri, another Guardiola change, played on the left in advance of Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden in midfield. From this unfamiliar position, he fired aimlessly. City lacked zip until Foden intervened with a sublime moment. Silva passed infield to Matheus Nunes, who found Foden. With his back to goal, Foden glanced and saw Antoine Semenyo ahead. A backheel placed the ball into Semenyo's path, and a lethal swish beat Dean Henderson.
Guardiola wheeled away in delight but soon berated his team for giving Tyrick Mitchell space to test Gianluigi Donnarumma. He was far happier when Marmoush doubled the score. Aït-Nouri floated the ball in from the right, Foden touched it on, and the Egyptian crashed home.
Second Half Control
City cruised at 2-0, exactly as Guardiola wished in the continued pursuit of Arsenal. Foden went close to a third assist, dropping the ball onto Gvardiol's head, but Henderson palmed the effort to safety. At the interval, City wandered off far happier than the visitors, whose threat had been intermittent.
Oliver Glasner's lineup featured Pino for Ismaïla Sarr, plus Jefferson Lerma and Hughes for Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada. This understrength team had an eye on the Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano.
A downpour made the surface greasy, suiting City's better football. Gvardiol missed an easy pass to thread in Marmoush, and Foden spurned a chance to release Marmoush via a lofted ball hit too heavy. Guardiola replaced Gvardiol with Nathan Aké and Nunes with Doku. The Belgian linked up in a move that finished with Marmoush spraying wide as Glasner made a triple change. Wharton, Jørgen Strand Larsen, and Sarr entered for Hughes, Mateta, and Pino. Sarr was immediately put through but could only dribble the ball into Donnarumma's gloves.
As Glasner said: "We have to accept that City were too good for us. If you want to get a point here, you need a top performance, and we could not deliver today."
Savinho scored on 84 minutes to follow Semenyo's and Marmoush's first-half strikes, sealing a 3-0 win. All City can do in the title race is keep winning and hope for a favour from Burnley or Palace, who host Arsenal in the season finale a week on Sunday. As Foden said: "We've seen a lot of things can happen on the final day. I've experienced it many times when the game doesn't go your way. We just have to keep pushing and doing our part."
