‘Not good enough’ – Crystal Palace boss critical of defensive showing in 5-2 loss at Manchester City

BY MITCHELL HALL

Oliver Glasner said his defenders were not good enough as Crystal Palace saw a 2-0 lead crumble into a 5-2 defeat at the Etihad today.

Eberechi Eze gave Palace the lead in the eighth minute with a tap-in at the back post, before Chris Richards doubled the lead when he rose highest to head in an Adam Wharton corner in the 21st minute.

Daichi Kamada gave Manchester City a chance to equalise 10 minutes later as he dived in naively with a challenge on the edge of the box, earning himself a yellow card and setting Kevin De Bruyne up to curl the ball home in off the far post past a static Dean Henderson.

Omar Marmoush pulled the hosts level before half-time, with goals from Mateo Kovacic, James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly bringing the final score to a thumping 5-2 defeat for Crystal Palace.

“Today was disappointing,” said Glasner. “Especially when you have the lead by two goals.  It was a great start to the game, scoring a third which was disallowed and having a big chance through Sarr. And then our defence was not good enough today in defending, and made too many mistakes.

“A team like City, when you give them so many chances to score from it.

“We will learn from this game, we have to learn. The last time we conceded five was against Arsenal, and then the players did really well.

“We will analyse it, we will show them, we will train it, and hopefully we will do it better next time.”