Manchester City keep title chances alive with thrashing of Crystal Palace

The home side received an initial scare when Brennan Johnson slipped behind the defence, crossing for Jean-Philippe Mateta to shoot towards the net. Gianluigi Donnarumma swiftly intervened to push the ball clear, though the forward's demand for the official to review goal-line technology footage could have sparked debate if the offside flag hadn't risen late on the original delivery.

No offside decision aided the Cityzens shortly afterwards, leaving it to Josko Gvardiol to step up and divert Yeremy Pino's shot out of danger.

In line with expectations, Guardiola's team controlled the ball for most of the period, yet creating truly promising opportunities remained challenging as time passed.

Nevertheless, everything shifted shortly after the 30-minute point as Phil Foden accelerated proceedings with a smart backheel, allowing Antoine Semenyo to slot the ball beyond Dean Henderson.

This sparked the match into life, and Manchester City netted a further goal prior to the interval, Omar Marmoush capitalising on yet another precise pass from Foden.

The Eagles were barely holding firm at that stage, with Henderson at full stretch to prevent Gvardiol from extending the lead to three.

The pattern continued post-interval, though Manchester City saw no urgency to push aggressively, prompting Oliver Glasner to call on his key substitutes.

Erling Haaland remained an unused option on the bench throughout, while Palace brought on Adam Wharton, Jorgen Strand Larsen, and Ismaila Sarr, the last of whom promptly challenged Donnarumma.

Despite their efforts, these additions failed to disrupt the flow, and Savinho sealed an unassailable advantage in the 84th minute courtesy of a fine through-ball from replacement Rayan Cherki.

Crystal Palace have managed only a single victory in their previous seven Premier League outings, shifting focus now to the UEFA Conference League decider versus Rayo Vallecano.

Manchester City's upcoming challenge is the FA Cup showpiece against Chelsea, though they'll keep watch on the Premier League standings, this result positioning them ideally to exploit any Arsenal stumbles given their better goal tally.