Manchester, May 14 (IANS) Manchester City reduced Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League to just two points with a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace.

City dominated from start to finish – save for the odd Palace attack – and went into the break with goals from Antoine Semenyo and Omar Marmoush giving Pep Guardiola’s side a two-goal lead.

Savinho added a late third to make it 3-0 in what was an enjoyable evening for a City team that will now look forward to this weekend’s FA Cup final against Chelsea.

City will now hope Burnley can do them a gigantic favour against Arsenal, and they boast a better goal difference than the Gunners, should there be another twist. Palace, meanwhile, remain 15th in the table on 44 points.

City almost fell behind after two minutes when Jean-Phillippe Mateta’s shot crossed the line only for the offside flag to deny the visitors the lead.

With so many changes made, the Blues struggled to find rhythm early on against a Palace side who were happy to drop deep and defend in numbers.

As heavy rain fell at the Etihad, the first half-hour passed without incident. On 32 minutes however, a lovely back-heeled pass from Phil Foden and a smart angled low shot from Antoine Semenyo and City were finally ahead.

It was the 100th Premier League goal involvement by Foden and eight minutes later, he had his 101st as he helped on Josko Gvardiol’s cross from the left and Omar Marmoush did the rest, burying a low shot from close range to make it 2-0.

The impressive Gvardiol then saw a towering header brilliantly clawed out by Dean Henderson just before the break in a bright and breezy finish to the half by the Blues.

In control and continually probing, the Blues looked for what would surely be a killer third goal without creating too many clearcut opportunities.

A raft of substitutions was made by both sides – including a rapturous welcome for John Stones whose name had rang around the Etihad for most of the game – and the game seemed to be edging towards a sanguine conclusion.

But Rayan Cherki had other ideas and just minutes after his introduction, his burst forward and perfectly-weighted pass found Savinho who neatly placed the ball past Henderson to wrap up the points

–IANS

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