Crystal Palace defender says why Manchester City draw happened, ahead of clash with Brighton

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Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards said how his club held Manchester City to a draw during their last match at the Etihad Stadium. Crystal Palace meets Brighton next.

City players watched all their shiny efforts come to nothing, after their two home goals were made void by Crystal Palace’s equalizer.

Speaking to the press in the wake of the stunner of a match, Chris Richards said why the match ended in Crystal Palace’s favour.

‘I think the Liverpool game, even though we lost, was a good way to step up, and City was just another step up, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going,’ he said.

‘We knew that, coming here [to the Etihad], we had to fight hard for 90-plus, so the goal at the end was just a way to reward us for the way we played today.

‘When you come to City you know that they’ll have the majority of possession, so we just wanted to capitalise when we did have the ball, and that’s exactly what we did.

‘We went 2-0 down but we looked around and realised we were still in the game. We had chances and it was just a matter of capitalising on them, so the more that we fought, the more the game opened up a little bit – and then what happened, happened.

‘I think it was a good swing of momentum for us. The last two weeks have been pretty tough for us. We had an unlucky result against Liverpool and then we drew [at City], so hopefully going forward we can get more points.

‘I can’t really pinpoint one person [who impressed]. It was a team effort, from the coaching staff to everybody on the pitch and all the substitutes. Everybody was behind each other from the first minute and that’s why we got a point.’

There is a level of safety and tendency for heroism that is found in playing against bigger teams. Crystal Palace could have easily suffered a 3-0 defeat but were able to use what they knew about City to make sure they escaped defeat.

Now warming up to face a team weaker than Manchester City, it is possible for them to assume that things would be easier in the pitch for them, thereby playing in a way that could give Brighton the upper hand.

Though Richards’ statement showed that Crystal Palace should be expected to do exceedingly well against Brighton, we all know the complacency that likes following their last exploit.