Detained By Crystal Palace, Guardiola Frustration Of Man City Only Wins Once In Six Matches

JAKARTA - Manchester City is increasingly difficult to catch up with leaders of the English Premier League which is currently controlled by Liverpool. A 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium, Saturday, December 16 evening WIB, frustrated manager Pep Guardiola. Man City has only won once from the last six matches. A poor record of Man City starting to limp up on Liverpool and Arsenal continuing to advance to compete for the top spot.

Guardiola deserves disappointment and frustration because Man City is already two goals ahead. But Palace was able to catch up and a goal that saved The Cityzens' victory came in just a few minutes left because it had entered injury time.

"It's not that we were unlucky. But this is a decent result," Guardioa said in an angry tone because he was disappointed with the player's performance.

"We just threw away two points. And, we deserved it for that penalty. You could see us create a lot of chances, but we also conceded. This has always been the case all season. We can't end the game with a win," he said.

These results make Man City still in fourth place with 34 points. They are indeed three points adrift of Liverpool who have just competed against Manchester United at Anfield, Sunday, December 17 evening WIB.

Meanwhile, Arsenal are facing Brighton and Hove Albion. If both win the game, then their points will be further apart and Man City will be further behind.

"In the end, we have to be more patient and try not to concede again when there is a transition. The important thing is not to concede," said Guardiola again.

"The opponent was able to score goals and then in the last minute we gave them a penalty. We should have been more careful in the penalty area. We really didn't deserve to win," he said.

The match against Palace has indeed frustrated Guardiola. Despite mastering the game, the team struggled to penetrate the Palace defense.

The hosts were finally able to score when Jack Grealish met Phil Foden's pass in the 24th minute. Having reviewed VAR for a long time, referee Paul Tierney finally approved Grealish's third goal in a league game.

This is the first time in Grealish's career has scored three goals continuously. This 1-0 score lasted until the end of the first half.

Entering the second half, Man City appeared more convincing. They managed to increase their lead when Rico Lewis was in the 54th minute.

But Palace managed to get up. They began to threaten the host's goal and as a result Jean-Philippe Mateta managed to break into Man City's goal in the 76th minute. The score changed to 2-1 for the hosts.

Palace seems to refuse to give up. When the game entered injury time, they continued to play offensively to catch up.

Palace's efforts gave a positive result. Foden committed a foul by bringing down Mateta in the penalty area so that the referee pointed to the spot.

Tierney continued to review the incident via VAR before deciding the penalty. Michael Olise calmly completed the penalty which changed the score to 2-2.

Guardiola also seemed to close his face after the match after showing his frustration. While the draw made Palace ranked 15th with 17.