Blues have eyes on the crown after storming the Palace

CITY continue to move. Pep Guardiola's side may have produced the sort of performance that made the BBC breathe a little easier about cramming all of last night's highlights into 20 minutes, but they won't care and they probably shouldn't.

- SIMON BAJKOWSKI

At a difficult ground against a good team that set out to make things difficult for them, the Premier League champions ensured that their road to another title is no trickier now after a tight 1-0 victory.

It is no secret that Selhurst Park is seen as one of the toughest places to come, and in recent years it has served as a serious test of title challengers. Edin Dzeko and Yaya Toure passed with flying colours in 2014, shortly before Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool flew far too close to the sun; Palace ended the longest winning streak in Premier League history when Guardiola's wouldbe Centurions arrived in the 2017/18 season but were unable to stop a crucial win for the Blues a year later when they pipped Liverpool to the title.

For all the struggles of Patrick Vieira's team recently, they have drawn their last four home games. After pointing out that they were the only team to stop City from scoring last season home and away, captain Luka Milivojevic made the gameplan clear in his programme notes: "We know that we can make it hard for Man City to play their usual game, and that is exactly what we will try to do this afternoon."

The home team had Vicente Guaita to thank for keeping City out in the opening minutes as the keeper reacted well to parry away when Rodri lashed the ball at goal following a corner. Jack Grealish then did the hard work to force an opening, working his way in from the left wing, only to scuff his shot and fail to test the stopper at all.