Pep Guardiola Happy With Man City Performance At Crystal Palace... But Not The Grass

This was the scene at Selhurst Park a few hours before Crystal Palace played Manchester City on Monday.

If you look very closely, you might be able to see that the grass was "not perfect".

At least that was the opinion of City manager Pep Guardiola.

A general view of Selhurst Park before Crystal Palace vs Manchester City

IMAGO/Action Plus/Katie Chan

Guardiola criticized the standard of the playing surface during his post-match press conference after City were held to a 0-0 draw.

The result blew the Premier League title race wide open, with City now just four points ahead of Liverpool who have a game in hand.

City were the dominant side at Selhurst Park, where they had 74% of possession and 18 shots.

Their failure to win was a consequence of their wasteful finishing, rather than the Palace groundsman's subpar mowing.

But Guardiola knows results like this happen throughout a season.

His odd grass comment aside, the Spaniard seemed pretty relaxed as he spoke into a TV camera after the game.

"We played to win the game," he said. "We created more and conceded few. The stats are there. 

"The way we played was amazing in a difficult stadium with the grass not perfect.

"We were there all the time, with and without the ball. We did a good game."

Midfielder Bernardo Silva was also pretty chilled in his post-match interview.

He said: "There are nine games to go. We have some very difficult fixtures ahead of us. But we're going to be there. We're going to fight as usual for the title."

Liverpool can close the gap to one point on Wednesday night when they visit Arsenal.

City and Liverpool are set to go head to head on April 10 at the Etihad Stadium, where you can be sure the grass will be just right.