Alan Pardew proud of Crystal Palace performance in defeat to Man City

The Palace boss said: “I don’t know much about him at all”. I was going to make the substitution before, because Bony had only worked the last few days with the team, but he told me he was OK.

Palace were under pressure in the seventh minute when Samir Nasri broke through the defence to go one-on-one with McCarthy, but the keeper didn’t allow the Frenchman to beat him.

With 20 minutes remaining Jason Puncheon had an excellent chance to take the lead for Palace, when he met Souare’s cross from the left.

Pellegrini thought Dann, who was booked, should have been sent off and said: “It was an important kick on [Aguero’s] knee”.

He said: “The arrival of Cabaye has give us a player who technically can make the first pass on turnovers crucial”. Many believe the play should have resulted in a red card.

The feud was revived in the 26th minute when Pardew was furious and entered Pellegrini’s technical area to protest about a challenge by Yaya Toure on James McArthur. “I went past Manuel’s box, he wasn’t particularly pleased about that”.

“But I think the team is demonstrating why we have won five games”.

Victory maintained City’s ideal start to the season, with Pellegrini’s side winning all five of their league games without conceding a goal.

“But we’ll get over it and we’ll bounce back“. We have a bit more balance than we had past year.

Bamford needs to be playing football on a consistent basis if he is to continue his development, and Chelsea may consider ending his loan deal at Palace if Pardew overlooks the attacker every week. “The Nigerian, so impressive on pre-season for the first team, was grateful to Coach Manuel Pellegrini for handing him his opportunity”.

Manchester City may have been the Premier League’s top spenders this summer but Alan Pardew insists Crystal Palace are closing the gap.

“They’ve put themselves in a great position”.

Despite all those riches, their match-winner on Saturday was a young little-known substitute, whose only other first team appearance was for one minute against Watford two weeks ago.

Iheanacho does not even qualify for the B list for City’s Champions League campaign, which begins against Juventus at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow, yet here was one of those moments that the leaders will look back on fondly if they lift the title in May.