As if ending their revival at its embryonic stage at Selhurst Park wasn’t enough, Manchester City were then told that Storm Darragh had grounded their flight home. Since they had to take the bus instead, the only surprise was that they didn’t miss it.
Everything else is running away for Pep Guardiola and his fractured side, which of course includes Liverpool, who feared some of their lead in the table would disappear on a day when the Merseyside derby was lost to the storms.
But this version of City is not the opportunistic plunderer we have become so familiar with, meaning they trailed Crystal Palace twice and finished with just one point and ten men. Regardless of their protests that Rico Lewis’ second yellow card was harsh, Guardiola does leave out a player for next weekend’s Manchester derby while he cannot afford to lose any more.
Guardiola’s dressing room message to his limping side after a 2-2 draw was that they should not wallow in self-pity after a run of one win in nine in all competitions. Easier said than done, perhaps especially for the manager himself, who invited the violins during the injury crisis.
“What I said to the players was: don’t feel sorry, please,” Guardiola said. ‘Accepting the challenge may be more difficult and in the end we will have more satisfaction with the way we handle these problems, as we had in the seasons when we won the title. All teams want the players to be fit and that couldn’t happen from the start.’
To give Guardiola credit, it is undoubtedly a serious situation, highlighted by the absence on Saturday of seven men he would consider starters, and a bench containing six men aged 22 or under and two goalkeepers.
Manchester City lost more points when they drew 2-2 against Crystal Palace in London
With City’s title challenge already dependent on a Liverpool collapse, it is paramount that their collapse does not kill their Champions League campaign in the group stages.
Ranked 17th in that standings, and currently looking for an unseeded spot in the play-offs to reach the knockout rounds, they face Juventus in Turin on Wednesday.
Guardiola has revealed that none of his ongoing injuries will be paid back between now and then, with an estimate that it will take ‘three weeks to a month’ for the burden to ease.
It’s quite bleak and indeed unfortunate, but they have enough capable world-class components, within one of the most expensively assembled squads in sporting history, that any woe-is-me routine must be followed with extreme moderation.
On Saturday that meant a side with Erling Haaland, who scored his 13th of the season by canceling out Daniel Munoz’s opener, and a fit-again Kevin De Bruyne, who regained his lead and played a role in Lewis’ equalizer after Maxence Lacroix Palace had eliminated. 2-1 up.
Palace have been excellent, especially Will Hughes, and Oliver Glasner has now put together a four-match unbeaten run.
But they faced a Guardiola side that lacked confidence, no ball winners in the center of the pitch and form that regularly showed when Lewis was caught in his transitions between left back and midfield. Press it hard, like Palace did, and they will fold.
That was the case when City conceded a goal within fifteen minutes for the seventh time this season. Kyle Walker kept them in side and was also responsible for the second – it’s a sad and recurring story for one of England’s best players of the last twenty years.
Pep Guardiola’s men seem to be a shadow of the team that has dominated the competition for years
Guardiola added: ‘When we get to the latter stages of the treble season, and things like this, it’s because everyone was there and involved. We have in these (bench) positions (at Palace) James McAtee, Jack (Grealish), Jeremy (Doku), others from the academy.
“The same thing will happen in the next three weeks or months. It’s not a matter of luck. It’s life. It happens sometimes, you have to accept it, it’s the challenge. We knew the season would go like this.
“We’re going to try one way or another.” Unlike the stranded plane, the ship may have left.