City held by Palace, gives Liverpool hope in EPL title race

LONDON (AP) — Manchester City gave Liverpool further hope in the English Premier League title race on Monday by stumbling against Crystal Palace for the second time this season.

A 0-0 draw at an atmospheric Selhurst Park extended City’s lead to four points but second-placed Liverpool has a game in hand in its quest to reclaim the title from Pep Guardiola’s team. The top two also meet at City’s Etihad Stadium on April 10.

Palace has taken four points off City this season, having beaten the champions 2-0 away on Oct. 30 — the last time they failed to score in the league.

Joao Cancelo and Kevin De Bruyne struck the post for City in a match that was mostly one-way traffic except for some sporadic — and dangerous — counterattacks from Palace, mirroring what happened in the meeting of the teams at the Etihad 4 1/2 months ago.

Arguably the best chance of the game fell to City midfielder Bernardo Silva, who somehow managed to prod a shot wide from barely two meters out following Jack Grealish’s low centre across the face of the goal.

While Liverpool has won its last eight games in the league, City has dropped points in three of its last seven outings — after a 1-1 draw at Southampton in January and a 3-2 loss at home to Tottenham last month.