Manchester City vs. Crystal Palace: Winners and Losers from Premier League
Manchester City overcame Crystal Palace by a 3-0 scoreline at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday, moving level with Chelsea at the top of the table as a result.
David Silva scored twice and Yaya Toure added a third to make it six league wins in a row for Manuel Pellegrini's men, while Palace continue to flounder near the foot of the table.
Here are all our winners and losers from the day's early kick-off.
Winner: David Silva
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With no strikers on the pitch, Manchester City needed one of their talented attacking midfielders to come up with the goods, and that man turned out to be David Silva.
The Spanish playmaker was quick to get into the penalty box at every opportunity, spurning a couple of chances in the first half before making his positions tell after the break with two goals in a dozen minutes.
His first was a little lucky, thanks to a deflection, but the second was all about technique and timing. Both owed much to movement and the simple will of Silva to get into those areas.
Losers: The Assistant Referees
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There was some awfully shoddy officiating at the Etihad Stadium, most notably a disallowed goal for offside for Crystal Palace.
At 2-0, a cross from the right wing found James McArthur unmarked to head in for Palace—but the assistant referee signalled offside, despite a City defender standing just two metres from the official and clearly playing McArthur onside.
"I wish I was still working in the media so I could say what I want without getting fined. It is two yards onside. It is a disgraceful decision," Palace manager Neil Warnock said, per ESPN FC's Richard Jolly. "You have to get decisions like that right. My players deserve that. It is so disappointing."
Elsewhere, there were poor decisions on free-kicks throughout, though they did get one call right in the first half when Fraizer Campbell attempted an overhead kick on goal and was correctly given as onside, despite Manchester City's players claiming the reverse.
Winner: Pablo Zabaleta
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Right-back he might have been on the team-sheet, but Argentinian Pablo Zabaleta spent most of the match playing as an inside-right attacking midfielder.
He didn't hug the touchline but instead attacked the channels, broke infield, made himself available in the penalty area and was a big attacking threat. His constant ability to break the defensive lines of Palace resulted in a few scoring chances, one for himself which he should have taken—and then another where he set up David Silva for the opening goal.
On the opposite flank, left-back Aleksandar Kolarov deserves mentioning for his great crosses as well, one of which assisted Silva's second goal.
Loser: Neil Warnock
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Neil Warnock has always been a terribly slow reactive manager. He prefers to see how things pan out and whether his team can grimly hang on in a match rather than trying to push for a positive impact, and the match at City was no different.
Despite the home team dominating and Palace's early chances drying up after the half-hour mark, there was no real push from the sidelines for the away team to change shape or method of getting the ball forward. The first substitute didn't come until they were already 2-0 down, and two further like-for-likes happened in the final five minutes, at 3-0.
For what?
Palace are now on a run of one win in 11 matches, hovering near the relegation zone.
Winner: Yannick Bolasie
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It wasn't all doom and gloom for Palace, thanks again to the impressive performance of Yannick Bolasie.
The winger showed pace and strength, skills and...well, no end product this time, but he was exciting and interesting to watch nonetheless. A few attempts at goal were wildly off target, but he was the creative outlet and offensive force for his team.
Whether he's just enjoying his football or doing everything he can to get a January transfer to a bigger side, he's certainly Palace's brightest spot at the moment. Against City, he briefly gave his team hope of springing an upset.
