Manchester City 0-2 Crystal Palace: 5 talking points as 10-man Citizens get humbled by spirited Eagles | Premier League 2021-22

Ten-man Manchester City succumbed to their first home defeat of the Premier League season after going 2-0 to Crystal Palace at the Etihad on Saturday. Goals from Wilfried Zaha and Conor Gallagher helped secure all three points for The Eagles, with Aymeric Laporte getting sent off for the Sky Blues in the first half.

Gallagher caught Laporte out in possession before laying the ball off for Zaha to slot home the opener. In the dying minutes of the opening stanza, the Spaniard was shown a straight red for catching Zaha.

City needed a big performance after the break. But that never arrived, as they struggled to break down a resolute Palace side who firmly held their shape. Both sides saw a goal ruled out for offside following VAR reviews, before Gallagher sealed the contest for Palace from a neat counter-attack in the 88th minute.

In the process, Pep Guardiola's side lost at home for the first time since a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea in May. On that note, here are the five major talking points from the game:

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#5 Manchester City lose it completely

Gallagher capped off a clinical break late on to seal the contest.

Was this City's worst game of the season? Possibly. Not just because it was their heaviest defeat yet, but also because they put up a lacklustre performance that screamed for creativity.

The home side had more of the ball, obviously, but simply ran out of ideas about what to do with it. Instead, they just resorted to pointless kneading of the ball around the pitch in the hope of finding an opener.

Palace, content with letting City have the ball, set up perfectly to hit them on the break. When City looked to commit more bodies forward towards the end, the ploy yielded dividends for Palace.

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#4 Laporte was an unmitigated disaster

City were down to ten men even before half-time.

It's unfair to blame only Aymeric Laporte for City's loss when the rest of the bunch didn't cover themselves in much glory either. But the Spaniard sure triggered their downfall with two huge mistakes.

Firstly, he was caught out of possession by Gallagher for Palace's first goal. The 21-year-old nicked the ball off Laporte before laying it off for Zaha to finish into the back of the net.

The centre-back carried the ball too far forward and paid a price for it, almost gifting Palace the lead, but worse still was yet to come.

In an attempt to thwart Zaha from latching onto a cross, Laporte pulled the Palace striker down, denying him a clear goal-scoring opportunity. That left the referee with no choice but to send Laporte off.

City, even before the half-time whistle, were a goal down and a man down as well.

#3 VAR-enforced offside call added to the mayhem

Jesus saw a goal disallowed for offside, compounding City's misery.

Following a lively first-half performance from Palace, there were plenty of expectations from City in the second. City were expected to up the ante, and all eyes were on Palace if they'd be able to defend their narrow lead.

While the Sky Blues continued to go through the motions and Palace once again dominated, one moment of VAR madness at City's end added to the thrill.

Gabriel Jesus first saw a goal ruled out for offside in the build-up by Phil Foden, who assisted him for the strike. City's celebrations were cut short, as the goal was called off.

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#2 Referee Marriner lets Palace get away with time-wasting tactics

Guaita looked to drag things on by deliberately wasting time.

Besides the loss, another important issue with which the Manchester City fans were (really) irked was referee Andre Marriner's proclivity to let Palace get away with time-wasting tactics.

Their goalkeeper, Vincente Guaita, was the real culprit. He was guilty of wasting time while taking goal-kicks, but he somehow managed to escape a booking until the 86th minute.

You can't blame Palace for trying to drag things, but it's the referee's duty to penalise one who deliberately waste too much time. That was something that Marriner spectacularly failed to do on the night.

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#1 Are Manchester City beginning to lose steam?

City have failed to score in consecutive games.

Following a blip on the opening day of the season when they went 1-0 down against Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City have mostly seemed unstoppable. However, this week didn't go according to plan.

The Sky Blues were dumped from the Carabao Cup by West Ham on penalties in a game they failed to score in. On Sunday, they were blanked out once again, this time by Crystal Palace.

This was much worse than Wednesday, though, with City showing almost no attacking intent or creativity to trouble their visitors. That suggests that all's not well in Guardiola's paradise.

With the side's chief orchestrator, Kevin De Bruyne, going through a rough patch at the moment, City's engine is running out of steam. It's early days, though, and there's enough quality in the City ranks for the team to bounce back into contention.