Man City 2 Crystal Palace 2: Michael Olise's last-gasp penalty sees champions lose more ground on Ar

MANCHESTER CITY could be kings of the world by Christmas – but they are making a right royal mess of defending their domestic crown.

The treble winners, the Premier League’s untouchables for three years on the bounce, aren’t so much having a little wobble, they are positively teetering.

One win in five games, nine points dropped, and looking anything but Europe’s premier team as they head to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup Championship.

When they were two goals to the good against an injury-hit Crystal Palace side without a win in six weeks, it should have been all about how many.

Instead it turned into “how on earth” as City’s soft centre was exposed and the self destruct button pushed, to hand Roy Hodgson’s supposed no hopers the unlikeliest of lifelines.

Credit to the Eagles for sticking at it, of course. Fair play for hanging in there when many others may have thrown in the towel.

But really this was all about Suicide City. The team that used to have plenty beaten even before kick-off, now can’t finish them off when they’ve got breathing space at home.

An unbreakable backline has turned into one riddled with more holes than a kitchen sieve. Late equalisers have become the norm.

It happened against Tottenham, against Chelsea, against Liverpool and now, worst of all, against Palace.

They lost at Aston Villa as well…and needed a come-from-behind performance to see off Luton Town, most peoples’ idea of relegation certainties.

No wonder Pep Guardiola hopped around in a fury on the touchline. Late on because he was convinced Bernardo Silva’s shirt had been pulled in the run-up to Michael Olise’s penalty leveller.

Yet even before that, with increasing frustration at his side’s failure to put it to bed in a game when every City outfield player who started the game had at least one shot.

To be fair, for 75 minutes the fact they were anything but clinical didn’t look like it would matter.

No Erling Haaland, maybe, but no problem either, and surely a morale-restoring win as they headed for Saudi.

PADDY POWER WELCOME OFFER - Get £40 in free bet builder bets

Yes, they were facing their bogey side in Palace, who had actually won two of their previous five Etihad visits, but should have been little more than a speed bump.

As it was, all City had to show for a first half of total dominance was Jack Grealish’s opener, the result of a magnificent stop, spin and slide rule pass from Phil Foden.

The finish wasn’t half bad either, drilled first time and low into the bottom corner of Dean Henderson’s net.  

When Grealish bagged his third goal in as many Prem games you imagined that was the opening of the floodgates.

Although why it took VAR official Stuart Attwell over three minutes to confirm it, God only knows.

Yet as long as the lead was only one, Palace had a puncher’s chance. They just needed to start swinging a few, first – and when they did, they so nearly gave City a bloody nose, too.

It came when Olise’s long ball caught the home defence on the hop and Jean-Phillipe Mateta reached it half a second ahead of Ederson, racing from his goal.

The City keeper stretched a leg to clear, yet merely upended the Palace striker. Yellow card for Ederson, and nearly an equaliser for Olise, whose free kick was a coat of paint wide.

A clear warning, then, that a second was needed - it arrived ten minutes after the break.

They had already seen one ruled out, when a whipped Julian Alvarez free-kick from the left curled straight in, but VAR rightly – and this time swiftly – ruled Rodri offside.

No matter, it was only delaying the inevitable. And, for young midfielder Rico Lewis, a first Prem goal as well, to add to the Champions League strike he managed a year ago.

Once again Grealish was at the heart of it, driving deep into the heart of enemy territory before drilled a pass towards Foden.

That pinballed up into the box and when it fell beyond a leaping Rodri and Joachim Andersen, Lewis finished like a time-served striker.

All over, then. Or so we thought…even when Mateta prodded in from bang in front after Jeffrey Schlupp drilled low across the box.

Surely they couldn’t, wouldn’t, let this one slip. What do we know, clearly? Because with three minutes of stoppage time gone, the unthinkable happened.

As Palace flung one more hopeful ball into the box, Mateta took a touch, Foden took a swing…and down went the Eagles striker.

Referee Paul Tierney pointed to the spot, VAR confirmed it, and Olise sent it one way as Ederson went the other.

Football, bloody hell, as Sir Alex Ferguson once famously said. Pep, you suspect, uttered something a little stronger…and well he might.

Relive all the exciting action below...

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKynZpOke7a3jqynqKqkZH92fJRua2xuX6Kur3nCoquyZaaoeqS%2B2KyrmqRdpa6trcKeZKWhppp6tK%2FOq5xmpJGpsrTAjKmpnqWZmr9uuMSanq6dXaq9pa3Tnqpo