Palace Test City’s Depth as Grealish and Nunes Sit Out

The pitch at Selhurst Park still carries the late-summer hardness that makes every tackle echo. Manchester City arrived missing Jack Grealish and Matheus Nunes, two players who, in different ways, stretch the field. Their absence was not crisis but a reminder that even the champion squad has seams.

The Missing Men

Manchester Evening News reported both were unavailable before kick-off. Grealish’s ankle has been a recurring conversation this summer; Nunes’ absence felt more abrupt. In their places came players asked to do unfamiliar things. The shape held, but the rhythm shifted.

What the Ratings Showed

BBC Sport’s player ratings painted a picture of controlled dominance with pockets of resistance. Ederson and the back four earned high marks for keeping Palace at arm’s length, yet further forward the marks dipped. Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne worked hard to knit the play, but without Grealish’s left-sided gravity or Nunes’ driving runs, City’s attacks sometimes arrived in single file rather than waves.

The visitors had more than 70 per cent of the ball and created the clearer chances, yet the game never felt entirely comfortable until late.

BBC Sport

Control Without Flourish

This was not the City of free-scoring highlights reels. It was a side managing absence through structure. Rodri sat deep, dictating tempo. Haaland, as ever, remained the fixed point that Palace defenders could not ignore. Yet the half-spaces that Grealish usually exploits stayed quieter. The disagreement in the room, visible across both reports, is whether this performance proves squad depth or merely that Palace lack the quality to truly punish City’s rotation.

One view holds that any away win at Selhurst without two creative regulars underlines enduring strength. The other notes that the scoreline flattered, that Palace created moments from set-pieces and transitions that a sharper side might convert. Both can be true on the same afternoon.

• City controlled the ball — Palace controlled the physical contest at times
• High ratings for defence — lower for attacking fluency
• Rotation as luxury — rotation as risk

The movement of City’s midfield without Nunes’ burst felt more considered than explosive. Passes found feet rather than running channels. It worked because Palace, for all their organisation, could not sustain pressure. Yet the test will sharpen when City face sides capable of punishing any drop in intensity.

Guardiola’s post-match words, filtered through the reports, carried the familiar caution: three points matter, performance can be sharpened. The ratings agreed on the result, differed on the ease. That tension, small but real, is what August football leaves us with before the season finds its true weight.