Four months after his arrival, Patrick Vieira holds his benchmark result. There was indeed, on September 11, this surprising success at home against Tottenham (3-0). But this time, it is the ogre Manchester City that the French coach managed to bring down on Saturday at the Etihad Stadium (0-2), after a heroic match at his Crystal Palace.
“I’m happy that he’s back at such a good level in the Premier League, that he’s playing his team as well. In recent matches, he has faced difficult opponents, but his team has shown its quality, ”Pep Guardiola said at a pre-match press conference about Vieira. Which proved him right in a fine way.
Aymeric Laporte’s galley afternoon
The former coach of OGC Nice gave a lesson in realism to the Spanish coach, with some former acquaintances of Ligue 1 holders such as Jordan Ayew, Joachim Andersen and Odsonne Édouard, trained at PSG. The untenable Wilfried Zaha opened the scoring with a crushed but perfectly crossed strike (6th), before causing the direct exclusion of Aymeric Laporte, in the position of last defender (45th + 2). Already at fault on the opening goal, the Spanish international had a short but difficult afternoon.
Faced with the disorganized assaults of the Citizens, sterile dominators once reduced to ten, the players of Vieira held on in their 4-3-3 now installed, like the formidable international English hopes Marc Guehi behind. The Mancuniens ended up cracking a second time on a goal of the English revelation Conor Gallagher (88th), and Palace snatched his second success of the season. And what success, which allows him, little by little, to move away from the relegation zone (13th, with five points ahead of the jump-off).
City continues its galley week, already eliminated by West Ham in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. A week that could count in the season of the Citizens, who miss the opportunity to seize second place in the Premier League. Not really a good omen before receiving Bruges on Wednesday in the Champions League in Group A, that of PSG.
