Crystal Palace 1-4 Man City: What Sage said

Crystal Palace boss Pierre Sage told BBC Sport: “I’m frustrated with the score. It’s heavy. We gave 60-65 good minutes. It’s our story for the moment. We know we’re a bit late in our pre-season. It’s why it was 45 minutes in the last game and 65 minutes today.

“The bad moment is the 3-1. We came back. We lost our hope in this situation. Before that we had a lot of chances which we missed. Against a team like this you need to be at your top.

“We let them put the ball in the box. We know Erling Haaland can do good things with his head.

“We had a lot of opportunities and didn’t take it.

“Football is not about style, it’s about efficiency. and sometimes you need the points to have confidence.

“Jean-Philippe Mateta was injured two days before the game. At the end of a session, individual work. It’s crazy. Maybe we’ve lost him for four weeks at least.”

• Only West Ham (14) have lost their opening home match in more Premier League seasons than Crystal Palace (13).

• Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage has seen one of his teams concede four goals in a game for just the second time in his managerial career, previously losing 4-1 with Lyon to PSG in April 2024.

Only West Ham (14) have lost their opening home match in more Premier League seasons than Crystal Palace (13).

Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage has seen one of his teams concede four goals in a game for just the second time in his managerial career, previously losing 4-1 with Lyon to PSG in April 2024.