• Palace boss says win at Etihad will not be the season’s last upset • ‘Pep won’t be concerned about a four-point gap at this point’

Roy Hodgson handed his old club Liverpool an early Christmas present with Crystal Palace’s surprise win at the Etihad, but the former England manager believes Manchester City can still go on to retain their title.

Palace’s 3-2 victory means Liverpool approach the halfway point of the season with a four-point advantage at the top of the Premier League. Jürgen Klopp’s team are still unbeaten, and if they remain so after visiting Manchester City on 3 January a first league title since 1990 will be in their sights.

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Chelsea also dropped points at home at the weekend, prompting Maurizio Sarri to concede that catching the leaders will be impossible, though Hodgson is of the opinion that Liverpool too will slip up at some stage.

“I don’t think Pep Guardiola will be too concerned about a four-point gap with 20 games left to play,” the Palace manager said.

“One of those is going to be against Liverpool, but even without that game the chances are that Liverpool will go somewhere and something like this will happen. Someone will beat them against the odds, there is a long way to go yet and there will be an upset somewhere along the line.

“I am sure the only disappointment for Pep will be having so much of the ball and being able to buzz around our final third as much as they were able to do without creating as many chances as they would have liked.

“But I would like to think he will give Crystal Palace a bit of credit for that. His side were able to ask a lot of questions but we managed to come up with the answers.”

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Guardiola did give Palace credit for a well-organised defensive shift, even if he was a little dismissive in suggesting they only crossed the halfway line on three occasions and managed to score each time.

The City manager blamed his own side for profligacy in front of goal, claiming enough chances were created in the first half alone to win the game, yet this was not the usual story of the champions carving opponents apart then fluffing their lines with the goal gaping.

Hodgson was right in saying City did not create as many chances as they would have liked. Leroy Sané found the side-netting in the first half, Raheem Sterling miscued and Fabian Delph brought an early save from Vicente Guaita with a shot from a long way out, but none of these were clearcut opportunities.

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Without David Silva and with Kevin De Bruyne only coming on as a 62nd-minute substitute, City were not able to pass their way through the opposition defence as they normally do. Gabriel Jesus was a virtual spectator in the first half and Sergio Agüero never received a chance to make a difference when he came on after the interval.

Perhaps Guardiola is now regretting starting without Agüero and De Bruyne when Silva and Fernandinho were already out injured, though not too much seemed to be amiss when Ilkay Gündogan ghosted through a static defence to open the scoring after half an hour. It was the liveliness of the Palace response that surprised. Poor defending all across the City backline allowed Jeffrey Schlupp to level within minutes, before a couple of weak attempts to clear a free-kick were punished by Andros Townsend’s sparkling volley from outside the area. Guardiola beefed up his attack with second, only to seeLuka Milivojevic increase Palace’s lead from the spot after Kyle Walker’s rash challenge on Max Meyer, and though De Bruyne’s late goal ensured a frantic last five -half substitutions, only to see minutes, the visitors held out for a win they fully deserved for Palace to survive.

Milivojevic’s penalty turned out to be the winning goal, yet Hodgson revealed he had been thinking about leaving his captain out. “Luka is on four yellow cards and we wondered whether to take the risk with Cardiff being so important for us next game up,” he said. “We had a conversation about it and hHe assured me he was sensible enough not to pick up another caution. I am delighted I gave him the chance now because he was such an important player for us.”