Crystal Palace left Manchester City’s hopes of retaining their Premier League title in tatters with a 2-1 win over the champions at Selhurst Park on Monday night.
Alan Pardew’s Eagles went into the game having lost their previous seven games against City, but in good form this year with six wins from 10 matches.
And having snatched the lead through Glenn Murray against the run of play in the first half, they stretched their advantage early in the second thanks to Jason Puncheon’s well-executed free-kick.
Yaya Toure pulled one back but City couldn’t find another goal despite having 22 efforts and over 70% of possession throughout. The defeat leaves them in fourth spot, nine points behind leaders Chelsea with just seven games remaining, while Palace look safe from relegation in 11th place on 39 points.
The hosts had a great early opportunity in the second minute when Martin Kelly put alovely low cross towards the back post from the left which Puncheon missed and Wilfried Zaha lashed his strike high and wide from an angle.
City took heed of the scare and gradually dominated proceedings and they went close to equalising in the 12th minute when Sergio Aguero latched on to Joe Hart’s long kick up the field ahead of Julian Speroni, who had come out of his area.
The Argentine striker picked out David Silva on the edge of the box but the Palace keeper got back to his goal and made a good save.
On 19 minutes Aguero picked up the ball just outside the area and shifted it on to his right foot before firing a low strike which rebounded off the post.On 29 minutes it was Silva’s turn to get in ashot which took a nick off James McArthurand forced Speroni into a fine one-handed save down to his right.
Palace then went up the field to score against the run of play in the 34th minute. City failed to fully clear a Puncheon corner from the right and the ball back in was flicked on by Joe Ledley towards Scott Dann at the back post.
Hart did well to save his close-range effort but Murray wason hand to fire in from close range for his fifth goal in as many games.
City had a mountain to climb in the 48th minute when Puncheon made it 2-0 as he stepped up to curl a left-foot free-kick over the City defensive wall and into the bottom corner of the net.
City were denied a clear penalty on 71 minutes when Fernandinho’s shot inside the area bounced up and off the hand of Murray but referee Michael Oliver missed it.
Two minutes later and James McArthur somehow managed to divert a goal-bound effort from Fernandinho over his own crossbar.City did get back into the game on 78 minutes when Samir Nasri’s cross from the right was only cleared as far as Toure on the edge of the box and he fired in a left-foot effort through a crowd of players and into the far corner.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side were virtually camped in the Palace half of the field for the remainder of the game, but the hosts held on to claim a memorable victory.