City Watch: Palace shock Blues in FA Cup final

It’s not very often that I’ve said this over the past few seasons, in fact, there’s only one other year under Pep Guardiola that we have, but Manchester City are going trophyless this season, following their defeat in the FA Cup Final on Saturday.

I said both in this column and on the radio show that I was happy we didn’t face Crystal Palace in the semi final, but after that, I’m left wishing Aston Villa had got through. 

There’s a lot of talking points from the game on the weekend, one in particular being the obvious handball outside of the box from Palace keeper Dean Henderson, but just so I don’t seem too salty, I’ll start with the City performance.

I’ve said it multiple times this season, the Blues have been passive, lacking in creativity and unable to break down teams this year, and that was only clear yet again on Saturday. 

In previous campaigns, we’ve been used to teams sitting behind the ball and defending for their lives, Pep has always found a way to win through that resilience.

This season has been different though, as City have failed on multiple occasions to get through defenses. 

I think there’s been general tiredness of winning four Premier Leagues on the bounce, and I’m not complaining too much because we have had an incredible few years, but I’m hoping this improves next year.

As for Saturday, I have to give Palace credit, they executed their game plan to perfection, sit at the back and counter attack, and they did just that, Eberechi Eze scored in the 16th minute to give the Eagles a 1-0 win.

I feel I have to talk about the decision involving Dean Henderson, hopefully without sounding too annoyed or petty. 

For me, it’s simple, and I think many would agree, it was a red card. 

Haaland was through on goal from a long ball and if Henderson hadn’t punched it away outside his box, Erling would’ve knocked it round it and had the goal at his mercy. It’s one of the worst VAR decisions I’ve seen without sounding too dramatic, and I don’t know how they got it wrong.

Omar Marmoush had the chance to get us back in the game 10 minutes later, but missed a penalty, so we do have ourselves to blame, but it was saved by a player who shouldn’t have been on the pitch, and the match I think would’ve been totally different against 10 men.

Anyway, congratulations to Palace, for once I can look at another team’s celebrations and not be too angry, it was actually quite refreshing to see a team that’s not one of the big six win a trophy, and there wasn’t a dry eye amongst the Eagles’ fans when the full time whistle went.

Following Saturday, City played Bournemouth on Tuesday night, in a must win game for Champions League qualification, in what was also Kevin De Bruyne’s final game at the Etihad. I don’t want to talk too much about the game, I’d rather talk about Kevin, but City won 3-1, in what was actually a brilliant performance. Marmoush made up for his penalty miss on the weekend by scoring a goal of the season contender from what must’ve been about 35 yards out, with Bernardo Silva and substitute Nico following up before the Cherries scored a consolation in the 93rd minute.

Another positive was that after 240 days out with an ACL injury, Rodri returned, playing the final 15 minutes of the match. I have to say, I cannot explain my delight when I saw him warming up, and the rest of the stadium agreed, the noise was electric.

But now let’s talk about Kevin. I try not to get too emotional over football, but there are certain situations that I just can’t hold back, Istanbul being one of them a few years ago. However, I couldn’t help that a tear came to my eye when City played their presentation video for the Belgian on Tuesday.

Some of the moments they played I had even forgotten about, simply because there have been so many. In my opinion, he’s been the best midfielder to ever play in the Premier League and I truly believe he’s the best to ever play for City, at least in my lifetime anyway.

All I’d like to say, and I don’t think this column will reach De Bruyne, but if it does, thank you Kevin, thank you for all the memories, the goals, the assists, the ‘let me talk’ moment, just everything. I’m sure I’m not the only one to agree that Manchester will always have a place for Kevin, once a Blue, always a Blue, here’s to King Kev.