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Manchester City As Arsenal continue to chip away at their Premier League lead, Phil Foden insists patience is proving to be his most powerful weapon in the title race.
City closed the gap on the Gunners to just two points with a hard-fought 3-0 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola’s side could find themselves at the top of the table ahead of Mikel Arteta’s side’s next match.
City host third-placed West Ham on Saturday, while Arsenal face a challenging trip to a resurgent Everton later that evening, marking a significant turnaround from November when the London club blew a seven-point lead.
Sunday’s encounter at Palace, whose manager Oliver Glasner has top-four ambitions, had initially threatened to derail City’s quest.
However, after facing initial pressure, erling holland Foden sealed the win with a superb strike in the second half before breaking the deadlock with a header just before half-time.
“The most important thing is patience,” said the England midfielder, whose extraordinary individual season continued in south London.
“I think we probably tried to attack too quickly. In the second half we did much better. (Patience) was the key to get the result. We had more control and more passes, that’s the City way. It was a performance from the whole team.”
Haaland scored his second goal and City’s third from the penalty spot late on after substitute Savinho was fouled by goalkeeper Dean Henderson.
However, Palace had their own significant chances in the first half, with Jeremy Pino hitting Gianluigi Donnarumma’s crossbar, Adam Wharton hitting a post, and Eddie Nketiah forcing the City goalkeeper into a good save.
“It’s a really tough game,” Foden said. “We know what (Palace) are about. They make it difficult, set up well and have quality players on the break.
“In the first half we were just trying to figure them out. In the second half we started hurting them more and we ended up taking the game away.”
More bad news for Palace when Daichi Kamada had to go off injured in the second half.
Glasner commented: “It looks like his hamstring. When he landed he extended his knee too much and that means the hamstring got a full stretch because he had never had a muscle injury before.
“It was just an incident and he can barely walk. It looks very bad. He will have a scan (on Monday), then we will know more.”
“I think we’ll lose him for a couple of weeks, but it’s an opportunity for other players to step up.”