MANCHESTER: Kevin De Bruyne inspired a Manchester City fightback from two goals down to beat Crystal Palace 5-2, while Nottingham Forest’s challenge for a place in next season’s Champions League stumbled after a 1-0 defeat by Everton on Saturday.
In De Bruyne’s first appearance at the Etihad Stadium since announcing his decade in Manchester will come to an end at the end of the season, the Belgian rolled back the years to save City’s blushes.
Unbeaten in seven games, Palace made the trip north full of confidence and found themselves 2-0 up after 20 minutes.
Eberechi Eze slotted home Ismaila Sarr’s pass before Chris Richards took advantage of poor City defending to head in from a corner.
Eze had a third goal narrowly ruled out for offside before De Bruyne stirred the City fightback.
The 33-year-old fired in a free-kick off the post before heading down for Omar Marmoush to level just three minutes later.
City were rampant after the break as De Bruyne teed up Mateo Kovacic on 47 minutes to complete the comeback.
Goalkeeper Ederson provided his fourth Premier League assist of the season for James McAtee to make it 4-2 before Nico O’Reilly’s sweet strike rounded off the scoring.
Victory lifts Pep Guardiola’s men back into the top four, with the top five in the Premier League this season qualifying for the Champions League thanks to the strong performance of English sides in European competition.
Forest remain in third and on course for their first taste of Europe’s elite competition since they were holders in 1980.
However, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have lost their last two games to allow the chasing pack back onto their tails.
A forgetful game at the City Ground appeared to be meandering toward a stalemate until Abdoulaye Doucoure struck in the 94th minute to secure Everton’s first win in seven games.
Aston Villa’s Champions League run this season may have just days left in it as they trail Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 after the first leg of their quarter-final in the French capital.
Unai Emery’s men are making a charge to get back into the competition next season after maintaining their winning Premier League run with a 3-0 victory at already-relegated Southampton despite Marco Asensio having two penalties saved by Aaron Ramsdale.
Ollie Watkins was again left on the bench by Emery but made a stunning impact with a volley over Ramsdale from Youri Tielemans’ dinked pass 17 minutes from time.
Donyell Malen then sealed the points with his third goal in as many league games.
Asensio’s second spot-kick was saved in stoppage time, but John McGinn pounced on the rebound.
Villa climb above Chelsea into fifth, just one point behind City.
Leicester scored their first league goals since January to snap a nine-game losing run, but a 2-2 draw at Brighton still did little to help the Foxes’ hopes of survival.
Twice the Seagulls led through two Joao Pedro penalties.
But Brighton’s ambitions of European football next season were dealt a blow as Stephy Mavididi and Caleb Okoli levelled for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men.
Arsenal can cut the gap on leaders Liverpool to eight points later when they host Brentford.
Mikel Arteta, though, showed his priority is in finishing the job against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals as Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard were among those to start on the Gunners’ bench.
De Bruyne leads Manchester City comeback, Forest beaten by Everton
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De Bruyne leads Manchester City comeback, Forest beaten by Everton
- Unbeaten in seven games, Palace made the trip north full of confidence and found themselves 2-0 up after 20 minutes
- Belgian legend rolled back the years to save City’s blushes
Leclerc ‘satisfied’ despite season’s challenges
- Barring a win in Abu Dhabi this weekend, the Ferrari driver will endure a winless F1 season
ABU DHABI: Despite a challenging season that has seen Charles Leclerc struggle to keep up with the title frontrunners, the Ferrari driver has declared himself “satisfied” with his own performances this season.
Barring a win for the 28-year-old Monegasque driver at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, Leclerc is set to endure a second winless campaign in four, having previously won three races in 2024 and 2022.
“Personally, I’m quite satisfied,” Leclerc said in Abu Dhabi. “I think it’s been a strong season on my side. You always try to improve from one season to the other, and that’s what I’ve tried to do this year.
“I’m satisfied with the work. Unfortunately, the performances are not where they should be,” Leclerc added. “I’m not as satisfied about the result side of things and the performance we’ve shown, especially after last year that we ended up strong.”
Leclerc says the team has not managed to meet the expectations set at the beginning of the season, but has gone about fixing the issues throughout the season.
“We’ve pushed,” he said. “I think we reacted well as a team from the first race to the last race, trying to turn that situation around. It wasn’t easy because we didn’t have that many upgrades as we are focusing mostly on 2026, but yeah, I think we performed well as a team on track.
“What we are missing eventually is the performance on the car, and for that, I hope that next year will be better.”
Asked about who he thinks will come out on top in Sunday’s three-way title showdown, Leclerc said: “I’ve changed my mind so many times this year. I thought it was Oscar (Piastri), then I thought it was Max (Verstappen), Then, I don’t know.
“I probably think it’s going to be Lando (Norris). Twelve points is still significant. If nothing big happens to Lando, I think Lando will take it.”
