Manchester City's goalless draw against Crystal Palace on Monday evening was an incredibly frustrating result. City dominated and created plenty of chances unlike in some of their recent outings, but they just could not finish any of them off.
Pep Guardiola's side now know that a win for Liverpool against Arsenal will trim their lead at the top of the Premier League table to a solitary point, a situations few imagined possible a few months ago. With City's next league game coming a few hours after Liverpool take on Watford on April 2nd, City could make the journey up to Burnley no longer top of the standings.
To analyse City's frustrating night, City Is Ours has put together a summary of the most notable things we noticed at Selhurst Park. Welcome to our latest instalment of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'.
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The good
The fact that City were able to find ways through Palace's compact defence and create lots of chances was obviously a good thing, but one individual who particularly stood out was in the defensive half of the team.
Ruben Dias' injury has allowed John Stones to come back into the team and he has been brilliant. The England man was great alongside Dias last season, but he has always been regarded as a player who needs to start games consistently to get into his stride.
Now he's showing the opposite; despite barely featuring in the league this season he looks like he hasn't missed a game, and against Palace he was at his composed and creative best. Because of him, Dias' absence won't be felt as keenly as it might otherwise have been.
The bad
This is a bit of an obvious one, but you could go as far as to say that City's finishing at Selhurst Park was atrocious, not merely bad. City took 18 shots in all and created four big chances, but a combination of excellent goal-keeping, the woodwork and inexplicable wastefulness thwarted them.
Bernardo Silva - who was nevertheless at his creative best - was a major culprit. In the first half, an uncharacteristically bad touch let him down after he'd rounded Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, while in the second he failed to steer home Jack Grealish's low ball across the face of goal.
The likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte all missed excellent opportunities. City could have played another 90 minutes and still not have scored.
The ugly
Rodri has earned himself an unlikely reputation as an on-field troublemaker this season, surprisingly so given the calm and collected nature of his passing game and personality. Perhaps his provocative goal celebration at Arsenal flicked a switch inside him, made him realise there is another way to live, because at Selhurst Park he was a right wind-up merchant.
Perhaps that was also born out of frustration at City's inability to score. The way he berated Cheikhou Kouyate for going down after a challenge suggested so. That certainly seemed to be the case with Grealish, who found himself picking a fight with Nathaniel Clyne for no apparent reason.
It was a frustrating night for City, but letting the tension get the better of you never really helps. Guardiola's players didn't lose their heads per se, but with the pressure only set to intensify over the next nine games, they need to do better at keeping their cool.
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