By Philip O’Connor
Palace started brightly, but they went behind in the 17th minute when Haaland jumped to reach Antoine Semenyo’s cross and send a looping header beyond the despairing dive of Dean Henderson, for the Norwegian’s first goal of the new league campaign. In an end-to-end affair, City’s Phil Foden spooned the ball over the bar in the 21st minute and Eddie Nketiah wasted an excellent chance for the home side early in the second half before Cherki netted in the 54th minute, dancing through the defence before poking the ball home. Palace pulled a goal back two minutes later when Yeremy Pino’s free kick came back off the crossbar and bounced off the back of City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma before hitting the post and dropping into the net. But whatever hopes Palace had of staging a comeback were quickly snuffed out when French playmaker Cherki scored again in the 59th minute, flashing a deflected shot off Chris Richards and into the net for his second of the night. Not to be outdone, Haaland picked up a pass from Foden and blasted home a typical left-foot shot in the 85th minute to complete the rout for Enzo Maresca’s side and give City the maximum six points from their opening two games.
