Manchester City Ambushed at Home by Crystal Palace

The Eagles are getting a knack for giant-killing.

For the most part of their history, Crystal Palace has been an innocuous South London side that's pleased to be one of those clubs who fill out the Premiership while big brands do battle for all the honors.

Predictably, dudes are nestled in 14th place, not so far from the danger zone that they can take the task chasing points lightly.

But damn! Some of the points they're earning this season are bloody impressive.

 

It is. For fun and profit.

Check out what the Eagles have been up to so far this season:

• a 2-2 draw with Arsenal,
• a 0-0 draw at Manchester United, and now,
• a 2-3 stunner at Manchester City.

Those five unanticipated points could be mighty useful come springtime.

 

Palace needs to fire on all cylinders just to stay on the same pitch as the Citizens, and that's what they did.

The match began innocently enough for the home side. It seemed like dudes would be cruising as usual, especiall when the 27th minute arrived.

Ilkay Gündoğan infiltrated and directed a header into the left corner of Vicente Guaita's goal:

 

To be clear, it's not like Palace suddenly took over or anything ...

 

But the Eagles made the odd chance work.

In the 33rd minute, after a nifty possession play by Wilfried Zaha, Jeffrey Schlupp aimed for the bottom-right corner of Ederson's goal, and the shocker was on:

 

If that wasn't evidence enough, three minutes later, Palace made hay out of chaos.

Patrick van Aanholt fired a free kick, and City's defense tried to clear, first with John Stones, and then with Bernardo Silva. However, the ball ended up with Andros Townsend, who didn't think twice and shot without letting the ball touch the pitch.

It was an amazing goal:

 

With every stat going their way except the one that counts, the Citizens must've spent part of the halftime break wondering what else could happen to them.

 

When they came up for air in the 52nd minute, all they found was matters getting worse.

The Eagles' Max Meyer was hauled down in the box by Kyle Walker.

Luka Milivojević stepped up to the spot and made Palace supporters Glad All Over.

 

City roared back with reckless abandon, but the damage was done.

Kevin de Bruyne did ring up a second in the 85th minute with a spiffy shot the surprised everyone ...

 

... but that was all they got.

Suddenly, City's finding itself more than a game adrift of Jürgen Klopp's crew:

 

No one's running away with the title this season, though, so there's plenty of time for more drama to unfold.

Like the rumors that Manchester United wants to talk to Klopp.

But that's big-brand business. All Palace cares about right now is heading back to South London, singing a happy song.