Manchester City's title hopes are affected after Rico Lewis' latest red card at Crystal Palace | first division

The way things have gone for Pep Guardiola, this could have been much worse. With his team losing twice to a Crystal Palace team brimming with renewed confidence, the city ​​of manchester The manager saw Erling Haaland end his mini drought with a 13th Premier League goal of the season before Rico Lewis equalized again to end the run of five consecutive away defeats.

Even if this was another afternoon to forget for Kyle Walker, whose errors helped Daniel Muñoz and Maxence Lacroix establish the lead, City will be grateful to have come away with something after Lewis was shown a second yellow card in the closing stages .

Guardiola appeared lost in thought after heading straight to the bench upon arrival 90 minutes before kick-off, just as he had done at Anfield before the match. defeat against Liverpool last Sunday.

The City manager said in his pre-match interview that his team would “have to adapt as quickly as possible with a good mentality” after injuries to defenders Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji forced them to miss the trip to south London. . But when Lacroix headed in a Will Hughes corner just before the hour mark, he must have feared the worst after ending a run of six games without a win. against Nottingham Forest in the middle of the week.

Guardiola will be disappointed that City failed to beat Palace after Lewis, who filled in at left-back in Aké's absence, equalized before seeing red, although there were signs they had rediscovered at least some of their brilliance in attack.

However, the defence, and in particular Walker in a week when City travel to face Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday before the Manchester derby next Sunday, remains a major concern.

On another day, Palace could have achieved a second successive victory if they had taken advantage of their opportunities. They had scored fewer goals at home than any other team in the first division this season, four, but it took less than four minutes to find the breakthrough against a defense clearly lacking cohesion and confidence.

Walker was guilty of playing Muñoz on the opposite side after Hughes intercepted him and the Colombian scored the second goal of his Palace career after the late draw against Newcastle Here last week.

Only Dean Henderson's header prevented City from hitting back as Haaland ran onto Kevin De Bruyne's pass. But playing with Ilkay Gündogan and Bernardo Silva as a double pivot always leaves them exposed to danger and a poor pass from Rúben Dias that was poorly controlled by the German midfielder almost allowed Palace to go in for a second, with Ismaïla Sarr firing over the bar from the corner that turned out.

Gündogan was extremely unlucky to hit the post with a brilliantly instinctive volley from the edge of the area, but Savinho was unable to tap in the rebound.

Palace should have made them pay when Lewis lost the ball to Muñoz and Jean-Philippe Mateta set up Jefferson Lerma inside the box, only for Dias to come to his team's rescue with a timely block, one of several the Portuguese made during the first half. .

The importance of that moment was underlined when Haaland beat Marc Guéhi to head in a deep cross from Matheus Nunes on the half hour mark, his first goal since the defeat at Brighton last month.

A swirling wind meant conditions were far from ideal, although City looked much more secure in possession with De Bruyne once again pulling the strings. But when Silva gifted the ball to Hughes and City were forced to concede a corner 11 minutes after the break, it was once again Walker who was caught napping. The English defender was outmatched and Lacroix headed home from point-blank range.

Guardiola looked concerned but, to his relief, his team drew level again when Lewis scored at the end of a brilliant passing sequence involving De Bruyne and Silva. Savinho and Haaland came close to sealing City's victory, with a complete save denying the Brazilian's deflected attempt.

Lewis was given his marching orders for a late charge on Trevoh Chalobah that will only add to Guardiola's headaches at the back.