Sergio Aguero scored twice as Manchester City closed the gap at the top of the Premier League by thrashing a lacklustre Crystal Palace side.<\/p>\n
After a slow start from the hosts, midfielder Fabian Delph gave them the lead with a long-range drive.<\/p>\n
Striker Aguero doubled the advantage with an effort that deflected in off the head of defender Scott Dann.<\/p>\n
Aguero finished off a sublime team move and David Silva added a fourth, with Palace winless in five league games.<\/p>\n
The Eagles could have gone ahead in the first couple of minutes but defender Damien Delaney headed straight at Joe Hart when free inside the area.<\/p>\n
Yohan Cabaye went close late on with an effort that flew narrowly wide, but Palace have now failed to score in their past five league games.<\/p>\n
Having started the day in third place, City were briefly top after victory over Palace, but were later overtaken by surprise title challengers Leicester who drew 1-1 against Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
Manuel Pellegrini’s side failed to score against Everton in their last league game, and there were concerns over the form of Aguero going into the game.<\/p>\n
But the Argentine – who had scored just once in his past five league games – showed his class at a snowy Etihad Stadium, scoring twice and setting up the impressive Silva for another, as the hosts found the net with all four shots on target.<\/p>\n
City’s third was particularly special, as four players with a value of \u00a3141m combined to score – Aguero starting and finishing a move that also involved Silva, Yaya Toure and Kevin de Bruyne.<\/p>\n
The Blues have not been beaten in the league since their 2-1 defeat at Arsenal before Christmas and, with Aguero and Silva hitting their stride after injury, are finding form at just the right time.<\/p>\n
As recently as 19 December – when Palace beat Stoke – there was talk of Alan Pardew’s side challenging for a place in Europe, perhaps even in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Then, they had the same number of points as fourth-placed Tottenham, but an alarming slump has seem them drop to eighth in the table.<\/p>\n
This was another game in which they failed to score or take a point. Having made a mistake in their defeat by bottom side Aston Villa in midweek, goalkeeper Hennessey was again at fault for City’s opener.<\/p>\n
Manager Pardew was unhappy with the Welshman’s performance – but he has problems at both ends of the field.<\/p>\n
Pardew has admitted he needs to bring in a striker in the transfer window, and neither the hard-working Connor Wickham nor the ineffectual Marouane Chamakh forced Hart into a save.<\/p>\n
Palace’s best chance came in the second minute. Had skipper Delaney scored with his header, it could have been a different story, but their wait for a goal and a point continues.
\n–
\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sergio Aguero scored twice as Manchester City closed the gap at the top of the Premier League by thrashing a lacklustre Crystal Palace side. After a slow start from the hosts, midfielder Fabian Delph gave them the lead with a long-range drive. Striker Aguero doubled the advantage with an effort that deflected in off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=182305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=182305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=182305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=182305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}