IN MAY, if Pep Guardiola is lifting the Premier League trophy once again, this will look like an afterthought, a routine away win.
Three goals, three points, two more from Erling Haaland.
Ask Man City boss Guardiola this morning, though, and he will tell you it was anything but that.
A win chiselled out through graft, yes. You expect that.
But also with the sort of good fortune that makes champions at the end of the long, hard slog.
Blocks and tackles, last gasp stuff, the woodwork rattled.
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Yet through it all, resilience and determination, even when it seemed that, at some stage City’s luck would run out.
And when it didn’t, once again, the men who made the difference included the man who so regularly makes the difference.
Alongside the England midfielder who has spent the last few weeks sending out World Cup messages that the watching Thomas Tuchel simply cannot ignore.
Erling Haaland’s first half header, his 22nd City strike of the season in all competitions, was the latest proof that the Prem’s greatest current goal machine remains a freak of nature, his 23rd, from the spot at the end, another punctuation mark.
No matter that Palace were the better side for long periods.
That Jeremy Pino hit the bar, Adam Wharton the post, that Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ismaila Sarr caused constant kittens and that City were harried to distraction.
Despite all of those moments when it seemed Palace had to score, they could not.
And when his opportunity came, Haaland rose, the most impressive Norwegian pine in London this weekend outside the one in Trafalgar Square.
Soaring into the air, too powerful and strong for Chris Richards, it was Haaland’s forehead that made the decisive contact when Matheus Nunes was, for once, allowed time and space to put the ball into the danger zone.
It was only Haaland’s ninth touch of the game, four minutes before the interval, a signal of how much Guardiola’s team were on the back foot.
But there are games in any title-winning campaign when what matters is not the “how?” but the “how many?”.
And after Arsenal rode their own goal luck to take three points in added time against Wolves, Phil Foden’s latest touch of magic ensured that City will go into the Christmas carnage looming in the Gunners’ rear mirrors.
Foden had spent much of the first half operating on the left but he had filtered into a more central position, just outside the box, when he picked up from Rayan Cherki on 69 minutes.
It needed a blink of an eye for his left foot to be engaged, a low scudder that was always going to beat Dean Henderson’s dive and finish in the corner of the net, Foden’s sixth in his last five games.
Tuchel, in the main stand, cannot but take note, although he might have been somewhat concerned at the difficulties endured by Nico O’Reilly for much of the first hour. And that was that.
Palace, famously, hustled and bustled City out of their stride at Wembley in May, resulting in the greatest day in the Eagles’ history and the same snap and crackle was equally evident.
Yet for all the noise from the Holmesdale End, all those periods where Oliver Glasner was not alone in feeling convinced his side were surely going to score, City did not buckle.
That ability to withstand the sort of concerted pressure that Mateta, Pino, Sarr and Wharton put on is the mark of champions, even if Arsenal, for now, remain in the box seat.
They had to show it, too, either side of Haaland’s opener.
Wharton, so clever in possession – maybe Tuchel might still be persuaded he can have a World Cup role – was unsurprisingly involved in much of the home side’s good work.
His measured ball over the top sent Pino in on goal, with the assistant ruling Gvardiol had played the Spaniard onside.
The Spaniard let fly, his strike flicking off the bar with Gianluigi Donnarumma beaten, although it would surely have been scrutinised to the millimetre back at Stockley Park.
Pino and Sarr also managed to get into the City box without being able to find the shot to test Donnarumma, with City’s sole response a Foden free-kick parried by Henderson.
Haaland was waiting, desperately, for the chance to do what he does better than anybody.
And when it came, four minutes from the break, he did exactly that.
Nunes and Bernardo Silva exchanged passes on the right, with the defender able to deliver and Haaland doing the rest, Henderson rooted as the header found the corner.
Not that Palace folded, Donnarumma swiftly off his line to foil Mateta before saving from the Frenchman before the break.
It was a similar story at the start of the second half, Wharton robbing Nico Gonzalez outside the City box and lashing a left-footer that kissed the outside of the near post with Donnarumma scrambling.
But City survived the storm, Foden’s strike gave them breathing space, with Haaland completing the scoring a minute from time, stroking home from the spot when Henderson sent substitute Savinho tumbling.
Haaland and Foden led the applause of the travelling fans, It was a message that Arsenal will have to note. This race is a long way from finished.
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