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Erling Haaland scored his 16th Premier League goal of the season and a penalty for Manchester City At a glance Man City reduce Arsenal's lead at the top to two points again Erling Haaland heads Man City in front before half-time and adds late penalty, with Phil Foden scoring in between Yeremy Pino and Adam Wharton strike woodwork for Crystal Palace in each half PLAYER RATER Erling Haaland scored twice to help Manchester City dispatch Crystal Palace and maintain the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal. City would have been eyeing top spot on Saturday night when Wolves grabbed a late equaliser at Arsenal but Yerson Mosquera's injury-time own goal provided Mikel Arteta's men with much-needed relief. City did their job in the capital but did not have it all their own way as Palace carved out the best opportunity early on - Yeremy Pino breaking the offside trap from Adam Wharton's dinked pass but only managing to strike the crossbar when one-on-one with Gianluigi Donnarumma. The hosts were creating chances without being able to apply the finishing touch and that lack of cutting edge proved costly as Matheus Nunes swung in a cross to the back post for Haaland to thump home a header four minutes before half-time. England international Wharton has not scored for Palace since joining from Blackburn in February 2024 but came close to breaking his duck at the start of the second period when a rasping strike rattled the foot of the post. Tijjani Reijnders' low drive was kept out by Dean Henderson before Phil Foden drove home a delightful finish and Haaland added a third late on from the penalty spot after Savinho was brought down by the Palace goalkeeper. Have your say on Crystal Palace’s performance What did you make of Man City’s display? Reducing the gap at the top to two points again, City are showing they are likely to push the Gunners all the way. Pep Guardiola's side - top scorers in the division this season with 37 goals - have now won their last four league games by netting at least three times in each. They owe much of that to having the ruthless Haaland at their disposal. The Norway international scored the winning goal in the magnificent Champions League victory at Real Madrid on Wednesday and helped City on their way to all the points in London. The 25-year-old was on the periphery of the game, as he so often is, but only needed a sniff - on 41 minutes burying Nunes' cross and adding a penalty late on to take his tally to 17 in the league this season. Foden is another player in excellent form and his fine finish was his sixth goal in his last five games in all competitions, serving as another reminder of his capabilities to England boss Thomas Tuchel who was watching on. Rate players out of 10 for this game. The rater will close 30 minutes after the final whistle. You must be signed in to a BBC account to play. After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users. Comments can not be loaded To load Comments you need to enable Java Script in your browser Last Updated 14th December 2025 at 16: 03 Please Note: All times UK. Tables are subject to change. The BBC is not responsible for any changes that may be made. Manager: Oliver Glasner Formation: 3 - 4 - 2 - 1 Manager: Pep Guardiola Formation: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 Manager: Oliver Glasner Formation: 3 - 4 - 2 - 1 Manager: Pep Guardiola Formation: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 Premier League All competitions All competitions All competitions Crystal Palace are winless in their last 10 Premier League home games against Man City (D3 L7) since a 2-1 victory under Alan Pardew in April 2015. Man City have lost just two of their last 20 Premier League games against Crystal Palace (W13 D5), with both defeats in that run coming at the Etihad Stadium. Both teams have scored at least twice in each of the last four Premier League meetings between Crystal Palace and Manchester City, with two 2-2 draws and 4-2 & 5-2 victories for Man City. The last top-flight fixture to have this happen more consecutively was Arsenal vs Burnley between 1959 and 1961 (5). Crystal Palace have opened the scoring in the opening 10 minutes in four of their last six Premier League meetings with Man City but have failed to go on to win any of these (D1 L3). Crystal Palace have won 26 points after 15 Premier League matches this season (W7 D5 L3), their best ever start to a campaign, while it’s double the total they had at this stage last season (13). Palace are the first side to have at least double the number of points from their previous campaign after 15 games since Newcastle in 2021-22 (10) and 2022-23 (30). Manchester City are the leading Premier League scorers this season with 35 goals, while they also lead the way for x G (30. 0). They have the third best overperformance on x G in the division (5 goals), behind Tottenham (10. 1) and Aston Villa (5. 6). 17 of Crystal Palace’s last 20 Premier League wins have come when they’ve had lower than 50% possession, with 13 of those coming in 2025. The last team to have more than 13 wins with the lower share of possession in a year was Newcastle in 2022 (14). Manchester City have won their last three Premier League matches, scoring at least three goals in each win, last doing so in more in a row in April 2024 (4). Pep Guardiola has 149 wins while seeing City score 3+ goals and could be the third manager with 150, along with Sir Alex Ferguson (245) and Arsène Wenger (228). Among players to play 300+ minutes in the Premier League this season, the two players to create the most chances per 90 minutes are Man City duo Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki (3. 4); in Cherki’s case, he also ranks first for big chances created per 90 (1. 6) and expected assists per 90 (0. 55), while he’s assisting a goal every 80 minutes (5 in 398 mins), the best ever ratio in a Premier League campaign. Crystal Palace’s Eddie Nketiah has scored 21 of his 24 Premier League goals in London (18 at home, 3 away), the highest percentage of any player to score 20 goals in the history of the competition (87. 5%). His last 12 goals have been scored in the capital, the longest run by an English player since Cole Palmer between January and May 2024 (13). Attempt saved. Eddie Nketiah (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the top right corner by Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City). Assisted by Ismaïla Sarr. Corner, Crystal Palace. Conceded by Josko Gvardiol. Attempt blocked. Ismaïla Sarr (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is blocked. Attempt blocked. Will Hughes (Crystal Palace) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Attempt blocked. Ismaïla Sarr (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Substitution, Crystal Palace. Christantus Uche replaces Nathaniel Clyne. Rayan Cherki (Manchester City) wins a free kick in the attacking half. Foul by Tyrick Mitchell (Crystal Palace). Goal! Crystal Palace 0, Manchester City 2. Phil Foden (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Rayan Cherki. Foul by Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City). Chris Richards (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Substitution, Crystal Palace. Will Hughes replaces Daichi Kamada because of an injury. Delay over. They are ready to continue. Delay in match because of an injury Daichi Kamada (Crystal Palace). Foul by Nico González (Manchester City). Daichi Kamada (Crystal Palace) wins a free kick in the defensive half. Substitution, Crystal Palace. Eddie Nketiah replaces Jean-Philippe Mateta. Daichi Kamada (Crystal Palace) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Rayan Cherki (Manchester City) wins a free kick on the right wing. Foul by Daichi Kamada (Crystal Palace). Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.