Palace 1 - 4 Man City: What A Performance! Game Review and Player Ratings
Man City made it two wins from two in the Premier League as we romped to victory away at Crystal Palace. The second half performance from City was particularly pleasing as the Blues completely dominated proceedings.
Both sides had chances in the first half. Gianluigi Donnarumma was called into action a couple of times, but it was City who took the lead in the 17th minute. A great ball in from Antoine Semenyo was met by the head of Erling Haaland, who rose well to nod it home.
Phil Foden then had two glorious chances to extend City's lead, first by blazing over the bar when he was completely free followed by a mistimed header that seemed to skim his head and go wide. There's been a lot of criticism of Foden already this season. I thought his general performance was actually very good. More on this later.
Into the second half and Rayan Cherki did what Rayan Cherki does best. Receiving the ball from Foden, Cherki dribbled through five (FIVE?!) Palace players and toe-poked it past Dean Henderson into the far corner of the net. Simply sublime.
Cherki wasn't finished there, oh no. A fantastic finish from 20 yards out pretty much wrapped up the game for City. In between the two Cherki goals, Palace had pulled one back. A free kick, a superb one at that in all fairness, from Yeremy Pino hit the bar, hit the back of Donnarumma, hit the post and trickled over the line. Unlucky for Donnarumma, but it was an wickedly hit free kick.
Erling Haaland all-but-confirmed victory, smashing the ball high into the net after a lovely assist from Phil Foden. A great win away at what is a notoriously tricky ground to visit, Man City have two wins from two in an excellent start to life under Enzo Maresca.
Back to Phil Foden. Listen, Foden might find it difficult to make the starting XI once Jeremy Doku returns to full fitness. Potentially, the remaining spot in attack is likely to go to Rayan Cherki and for good reason. Cherki has been sensational in these opening two EPL games, getting two assists against Bournemouth and two goals against Palace. But Foden will have his part to play.
Foden played well against Palace, especially in the second half. His assist for Haaland's second, and City's fourth, will have given him confidence. The goals will come. Don't write off the Stockport Iniesta just yet.
Elliot Anderson impressed once more in the centre of the park. What a signing he's been! Yes it's (very) early days, but I've loved watching the England star control the midfield is his opening two games.
Ayyoub Bouaddi came on to make his City debut and what a player he looks, too! Bouaddi looked calm and composed on the ball, showed some lovely touches and played a De Bruyne-esque ball through to Semenyo who should've done much better with his ball across.
Ryan McAidoo came off the bench and set to work straight away. A driving run down the right hand side saw the youngster cut inside and curl a shot just wide of the far post. We'll see a lot of McAidoo this season.
Man City Player Ratings v Palace:
Gianluigi Donnarumma - 7
Abdukodir Khusanov - 7
Ruben Dias - 7
Josko Gvardiol - 7
Nico O' Reilly. - 7
Elliot Anderson - 8
Marc Guehi - 8
Phil Foden - 7
Rayan Cherki - 9
Antoine Semenyo - 7
Erling Haaland - 9
(Sub) Mateo Kovacic - 6
(Sub) Ryan McAidoo - 6
(Sub) Ayyoub Bouaddi - 7
(Sub) Vitor Reis - 6
(Sub) Kaden Braithwaite - 6
