Pierre's Palace suffer at hands of Man City again as clinical finishes underline visitors' extra class
Premier League
Crystal Palace (0) 1 Donnarumma og 56
Manchester City (1) 4 Haaland 17, 84 Cherki 54, 59
Pierre Sage's first home game in charge of the Eagles ended in a resounding defeat as doubles from Erling Haaland and Ryan Cherki underlined the superior finishing of the domestic cup double winners.
The defeat makes it two losses from the opening two games and even though there is no cause for alarm, it serves as a warning perhaps of difficulties ahead for Palace.
Three of their big stars were absent in Daniel Munoz, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta. These are not easy players to replace should they leave and resources will be stretched because of Europa League games.
Palace were bright and breezy at the outset. Their almost-retro kit seemed a source of inspiration as they flooded forward - attacking the Holmesdale in the first half for once.
Israeli international Anan Khalaili impressed down the right in his new surroundings - the 21-year-old signing from Union St Gilloise was soon egging the crowd to get behind the early efforts to unsettle Man City - not that they needed to be fired up. They already were.
But post-Pep City are still very adept at seizing control and were soon coming up with some slick attacking combinations to carve Palace open.
After just 17 minutes they were in front when Haaland rose up to send a looping header past Dean Henderson from Antoine Semenyo's cross.
More goals should have followed with Phil Foden spurning two great chances to cap some inventive and incisive play from Cherki.
The boss may change for City, but Enzo Maresca is just as enamoured with control as his famous predecessor and he knew most of his players could call upon the muscle memory of a dominant decade of visits to Selhurst Park.
Palace have not beaten City in South London since April 2015 when Glenn Murray and Jason Puncheon scored in a 2-1 win. Since then there have been eight defeats and three draws in 11 league contests as well as a 3-0 FA Cup drubbing in 2017.
City doubled their money at the start of the second half after Foden tore into the danger zone before Cherki took it on to glide between a clutch of defenders and toe-poke past a wrong-footed Henderson.
The Eagles came storming back when a beautifully struck Yeremy Pino free-kick found its way over the line after cannoning back off the woodwork and onto the back of Gigi Donnarumma.
Alas, the hope was soon snuffed out as the dazzling Cherki struck again - ghosting past defenders before rifling a deflected shot across Henderson.
Then Foden slipped in Haaland for the Norwegian to finish emphatically for his second of the night. It was all very powerful, sharp and seemingly unstoppable.
Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Canvot, Richards, Tomiyasu (Disasi 74) - Khalaili (Oscar Mingueza 75), Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell - Pino (Gozo 68), Nketiah (McNeil 68) - Strand Larsen (Guessand 63)
City: (4-2-3-1) Donnarumma - Khusanov (Vitor Reis 89), Ruben Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol (Kovacic 75) - O'Reilly (Braithwaite 89), Anderson (Bouaddi 82) - Foden, Cherki (McAidoo 82), Semenyo - Haaland
Attendance: 25,175
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