Manchester City’s title hopes hit after Rico Lewis’ late red at Crystal Palace

The way things have been going for Pep Guardiola, this could have been much worse. With his side having twice fallen behind to a Crystal Palace side brimming with renewed confidence, the Manchester City manager saw Erling Haaland end his mini goal drought with a 13th Premier League goal of the season before Rico Lewis equalised again to end his side’s losing run of five successive away matches.

Yet even if this was another afternoon to forget for the strangely underperforming Kyle Walker, whose mistakes helped Daniel Muñoz and Maxence Lacroix establish the lead for Oliver Glasner’s side, City will be thankful to have emerged with something after Lewis was shown a second yellow card in the later stages.

Guardiola – who made his thoughts clear about that decision to the referee, Robert Jones, at the final whistle – had looked lost in thought after heading straight for the dugout on his arrival at Selhurst Park a full 90 minutes before kick-off, just like he had done at Anfield before the defeat by Liverpool last weekend.

The City manager admitted in his pre-match interview that his side would “have to adapt as quick as possible with a good mentality” after injuries to Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji forced them to miss the trip to south London, with Jérémy Doku deemed too much of a risk to start after returning from a long layoff and Jack Grealish joining him on the bench. That meant four changes in all from the midweek game against Nottingham Forest that ended their run of six matches without a win, with starts for Savinho and Matheus Nunes and Lewis moving to left-back.

Palace’s nerves were settled by their first away win of the campaign against Ipswich, while the news that Adam Wharton – the England midfielder who has attracted interest from City as a potential long-term replacement for Rodri – is close to returning after groin surgery was another reason for Glasner to feel more optimistic. His side had scored fewer home goals than anyone else in the Premier League this season with only four but it took less than four minutes to find the breakthrough here against a City defence clearly lacking in cohesion and confidence. Walker was guilty of playing Muñoz onside after he was picked out by a through ball from Will Hughes and the Colombian slotted home the second goal of his Palace career after the late equaliser against Newcastle here last week.

Erling Haaland heads in Manchester City’s first equaliser at Crystal Palace. Photograph: Dave Shopland/AP

Only Dean Henderson’s head prevented City hitting straight back when Haaland raced on to Kevin De Bruyne’s pass. But playing with Ilkay Gündogan and Bernard Silva as the double pivot always leaves them open to danger and a poor pass from Rúben Dias that was miscontrolled by the Germany midfielder almost allowed Palace in for a second, with Ismaïla Sarr blazing over the crossbar from the corner that resulted.

Gündogan was extremely unfortunate to strike a post with a brilliant instinctive volley from the edge of the area but Savinho could not convert 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 area, only for Dias to come to his side’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 rose above Marc Guéhi to head in a deep Nunes cross on the half-hour mark.

A swirling wind in south London made conditions far from ideal, although City looked far more assured in possession with De Bruyne back pulling the strings. But when Bernardo Silva gave the ball away to Hughes and City were forced to concede a corner 11 minutes after the break, once again it was Walker who was caught napping as the England defender was outmuscled and Lacroix powered his header in from point-blank range.

Guardiola looked concerned yet, much to his relief, his side were level again when Lewis curled home at the end of a brilliant passing sequence involving De Bruyne and Silva. Savinho and Haaland both came close to sealing victory for City, with a full-stretch save denying the Brazilian’s deflected effort. Lewis was given his marching orders for a late lunge on Trevoh Chalobah just as it looked like his side might snatch all three points.