Foden stars as City takes title race to final week
Manchester City kept the pressure on Arsenal in the Premier League title race, moving within two points of the Gunners with a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium.
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Exactly 14 years since Sergio Aguero's famous final-day goal handed the club its first Premier League crown, City needed a victory to ensure this season's title race could not be decided in Arsenal's favour this weekend.
Despite Pep Guardiola leaving Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki out of his starting XI ahead of Sunday's FA Cup final against Chelsea, City cruised to a commanding victory.
Phil Foden was one of six players brought into Guardiola's XI, and he provided two assists within the space of eight minutes later in the first half.
After 32 relatively uneventful minutes, Foden took in Matheus Nunes's pass and produced a sublime back-heel to find Antoine Semenyo, who finished neatly into the bottom-left corner.
There was perhaps an element of fortune about Foden's second assist, as he attempted to pluck Josko Gvardiol's pass out of the air and saw the ball squirm to Omar Marmoush, and the Egyptian used his body well to finish on the swivel.
The tempo dropped in the second half, though City had a couple of nervy moments as Ismaila Sarr shot straight at Gianluigi Donnarumma following an error from Bernardo Silva, while Daichi Kamada was booked for simulation inside the host's area.
Savinho put some gloss on the scoreline – and inched City's goal difference one ahead of Arsenal's – in the 84th minute, slotting home after being teed up by substitute Cherki.
City will look to lift its second trophy of the season on Sunday, before turning its attention to Arsenal's meeting with Burnley. Any slip-up from the Gunners would grant City an opportunity to go top by beating in-form Bournemouth a day later.



































