Fabian Delph tells Man City team-mates to take things slow | OneFootball

A shock 3-2 defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday left Manchester City four points adrift at the top of the Premier League.

Following Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Wolves on Friday night, City were under pressure to beat Palace and close the gap to their title rivals.

Despite now being four points back, Fabian Delph has urged his team-mates to focus on themselves rather than worrying about Liverpool

“Obviously the result is a setback,” Delph said to the BBC after the game.

“We have lost but we are only looking at ourselves game to game.”

The defeat was just City’s second at home in their last 40 Premier League outings.

Pep Guardiola’s side took a first half lead through Ilkay Gündogan but were then stunned by Palace’s turnaround.

After Jeffrey Schlupp netted the opener, Andros Townsend scored a goal of the season contender from long-range and Luka Milivojević made it three from the penalty spot in the second half.

Kevin De Bruyne pulled one back for City but it was too little, too late.

“We had a few chances which we have put away in the past,” Delph added.

“But fair play to Crystal Palace – they were stubborn and organised.

“It’s hard to analyse and we will go back to the drawing board and look at it. We started slowly and the ball wasn’t zipping about.”

That will have to change on Boxing Day, when City take on Leicester. The Foxes caused a shock of their own on Saturday, beating Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.