Manchester City are not ready to throw in the towel in the Premier League title race just yet and, on this evidence, Phil Foden is unwilling to do the same in belated pursuit of a World Cup place with England.

Pep Guardiola gambled with his team selection here, so much so in fact that you had to wonder if the City manager felt the title had already gone.

But his stand-ins – led by the imperious Foden – delivered a very professional display and three fine goals against Crystal Palace to ensure Arsenal still have plenty of work to do yet if they are to end their 20-year wait for the title.

With a trip to Bournemouth next Tuesday, three days after the FA Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley, before the final day visit of Aston Villa, Guardiola clearly felt something had to give and so chose this game at home to Palace to ring the changes.

It was a bold move – and given the way Palace started, one that initially looked like it might backfire – but then Foden grabbed hold of the game, remembered there is still an outstanding player in there and City never looked back.

This has been another tough season for Foden, an autumn flourish eventually giving way to more despondency, but could he be timing his run for an England call-up to perfection?

His virtuoso performance here, which featured assists for the opening two goals – the first an arresting no-look back-heel that most players could not have dreamt up, let alone executed – followed strong showings from the bench against Everton and Brentford.

He also now has 12 goal involvements in the Premier League this season – more than Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer and Eberechi Eze. Not bad given he has been a shadow of himself for most of it. “He has to be a big role in the future and has to deliver,” Guardiola said. “He felt how the people love him with the standing ovation at the end.”

Whether it is enough to persuade Thomas Tuchel to take him to the US remains to be seen but before then he and City will aim to add the FA Cup to the Carabao Cup they won in March – and pray Arsenal slip up before they face Bournemouth.

With relegated Burnley the visitors to the Emirates Stadium on Monday, that seems unlikely. But, at the very least, City will hope to take it to the final day and now have a one-goal better difference than the leaders.

“The aim is to keep pushing and keep them [Arsenal] on their toes,” Foden said. “We’ve seen a lot of things can happen on the final day. I’ve experienced it many times when the game doesn’t go your way. We just have to keep pushing and doing our part.”

Palace faded away after their bright start and will have to play better than this to trouble Arsenal on the final day at Selhurst Park, although they will also have an eye on their Europa Conference League final against Rayo Vallecano the following Wednesday. So the odds remain stacked against City but it is not done yet.

There were six changes to the team that beat Brentford on Saturday, with Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki all on the bench, and five of those picked had just 20 starts between them since the turn of the year. Josko Gvardiol was making his first appearance for four months after injury.

On the pitch, though, City’s stand-ins approached things like there was everything still to play for – the title, a place in Saturday’s FA Cup final team and, in some cases, perhaps even their own futures.

After a dicey start, when Palace almost caught the home side cold on a couple of occasions, City gradually found their stride. And no one more so than Foden.

It has been another difficult season for the 2024 PFA Player of the Year but there were glimpses of a corner slowly being turned against Everton and Brentford and he turned it up another notch altogether against Palace.

They say class is permanent and form is temporary and it was no better illustrated in that moment in the 32nd minute when Foden produced one of the assists of the season.

A split second before receiving Matheus Nunes’s pass in a half space a few yards outside the penalty area, Foden glanced briefly over his shoulder.

Then the ball rolled in and the midfielder, knowing exactly where Antoine Semenyo was, played a no-look back-heel into the path of the Ghana forward, who had run off Chris Richards. Semenyo’s finish into the far corner was pinpoint. “It is one of those, sometimes it doesn’t come off but sometimes a risk is worth taking and I’m very delighted it came off,” Foden said. Guardiola was purring. “He is unique close to the box,” the manager added.

Watching Foden in recent months, it has sometimes felt like he just needs a hefty shot of confidence. Flashes of genius like that will do no harm and you could see the uplift in him after it. Suddenly, he was everywhere and, eight minutes later, he was the provider again, hooking Gvardiol’s lovely scooped pass into the path of Omar Marmoush. The Egypt striker nonchalantly rolled Tyrick Mitchell then fired beyond Dean Henderson.

Henderson made a superb save soon after to deny a bullet header from Gvardiol from a delicious whipped cross from Foden – who else – and the England man then teed up Bernardo Silva, who fired just over.

Palace really needed to make more of those early chances. Yéremy Pino had a shot deflected just wide, Richards should have done better with a header from a corner and Mitchell drew a good save from Gianluigi Donnarumma. But they were otherwise second best and when substitute Cherki waltzed down the middle of the pitch late on and threaded a pass through to Savinho to score.

Rayan Cherki charges forward for Manchester City and feeds it through to Savinho who finds the back of the net ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/4oySb0HzFG

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 13, 2026

City’s second string could congratulate themselves on a job well done.