Puncheon delivers killer blow as City’s title hopes fade to nothing

Manchester City must privately have known the game had been up for a while, but this was grim confirmation their title defence is over. Manuel Pellegrini's team are nine points behind Chelsea and will limp into Sunday's Old Trafford derby languishing fourth in the table, their priorities switched from silverware to securing a Champions League place without the need for a qualifying round in August.

That is damning. The din that greeted the final whistle here was reminiscent of the mood when Crystal Palace summoned conviction and quality to damage Chelsea and Liverpool last season under Tony Pulis. Now it was Alan Pardew celebrating with gusto on the touchline at the end. Life in mid-table has never felt so buoyant for this club. For their visitors, enduring a third successive away defeat in the league, everything about this campaign is starting to grate.

Inspired City had arrived with fond memories of this corner of south London. Selhurst Park had been the arena in which they had wrested back control of last season’s championship, Pellegrini’s team inspired by Yaya Touré

that Sunday last April to capitalise fully on Liverpool’s defeat to Chelsea on Merseyside earlier in the day. Edin Dzeko had eased them ahead early on and they had never looked back, even if it was Touré, opponents bouncing off him as he rampaged forward, who had stamped true authority on the occasion. This trip had felt like a salvage operation in comparison, the title having all but been ripped away, but the manager had vowed to “fight on until the end”.

Clutter of team-mates

His team were true to their word initially, monopolising possession and striking up their rhythm as the hosts sat far too deep. Julian Speroni was forced into a series of sharp stops, reacting late as the ball fizzed through the clutter of team-mates ahead of him, turning over a David Silva shot with his shoulder and one from the goalkeeper’s Argentinian compatriot

Sergio Aguero

with his outstretched right palm. When he was beaten, the striker skimmed a low shot on to the far post.

The pressure was incessant, Palace pinned back as City swarmed all over them, and yet their rugged resistance remained and, remarkably, they retired at the interval ahead.

The lead felt utterly unlikely. Other than a shot blazed into the stand by Wilfried Zaha from Martin Kelly's centre after 72 seconds, they had been unable to liberate either the former Manchester United forward or Yannick Bolasie on the opposite flank. Without those wingers firing, this team can feel blunted. Yet Zaha won his team's only corner of the period just after the half-hour and, despite Jason Puncheon's delivery proving uncharacteristically slapdash, Palace still found a way to prosper. Joel Ward, on his 100th appearance for the club, clipped the ball back towards the bodies on the edge of the box, with Joe Ledley leaping above Fernandinho to head on. Scott Dann appeared to be in an offside position as he volleyed goalwards but, when Joe Hart blocked with his feet, Glenn Murray reacted before Martin Demichelis to prod into the empty net.

Vincent Kompany and Gael Clichy led the livid protests at the award while the forward, finally enjoying an opportunity at this level and demonstrating he may just belong, celebrated a fifth top-flight goal in as many appearances. Not that he was finished there, the striker duly wriggling towards the penalty area in the opening exchange of the second half and drawing a foul from Fernandinho. Puncheon's resultant free-kick was sumptuous, for all that City's defensive wall appeared horribly flimsy, with Hart's dart across his goalline in vain.

Suddenly, all that early dominance had been wrecked, what composure on display offered up by Palace with their rugged defence and spring on the counterattack. Pellegrini merely added to the impression of chaos being demonstrated by his side by indicating to the fourth official that he wished to replace Kompany with Eliaquim Mangala, only to change his mind when play had stopped.

Frustration The frustration gripped in the stands, with Puncheon pelted with objects that appeared to have been thrown from the City support. Palace have had their own problems on that front this season.

They benefited from fortune here as City’s desperation forced them forward, Fernandinho denied a penalty when his shot struck Murray’s hand.

A quintet of furious visiting players had surrounded Michael Oliver at that oversight, though the midfielder merely tried again seconds later only for James McArthur somehow to deflect the attempt over the crossbar.

Yet the onslaught was underway and they would not be denied for ever, Touré taking out some of his personal frustration to lash home from the edge of the area via a flick of Aguero’s shorts. Samir Nasri twice might have forced them level in the frantic moments that remained, but this was to be Palace’s night. And, across the capital, Chelsea’s too. Guardian Service