Haaland brace fires Manchester City past Palace
Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester City beat Crystal Palace 3-0 to cut Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League table back to two points.
Having seen the Gunners snatch a dramatic 2-1 victory over bottom club Wolves on Saturday, City arrived at Selhurst Park five points adrift in the title race.
It came under plenty of pressure against its FA Cup conqueror, with Yeremy Pino and Adam Wharton striking the woodwork in either half for Palace.
Haaland opened the scoring with a downward header from Matheus Nunes's pinpoint cross after 41 minutes, capping a flowing, 25-pass move from Pep Guardiola's men.
If City's first goal was all about the collective, its second resulted from two moments of individual genius. Rayan Cherki darted between Wharton and Will Hughes before timing his offload to perfection, with Phil Foden picking out the bottom-right corner from 20 yards.
There was still time for the visitor to add a third goal, as substitute Savinho raced clear and was tripped by Dean Henderson less than three minutes after coming on.
Haaland neglected to take a penalty in City's 1-0 Wembley defeat to Palace in May, with Omar Marmoush being denied by Henderson. But on this occasion, the Norwegian took the ball and calmly sent the Eagles' goalkeeper the wrong way.
