Goalscorer Richards gives his take on City defeat
Chris Richards believes Crystal Palace failed to hit the "highest level" in their defeat at Manchester City - but is keen to ensure one tough game doesn't impact the Eagles' confidence.
Richards, returning from a two-game absence, headed Palace into a two-goal lead at the Etihad Stadium, after Ebere Eze had already coolly finished following a superbly worked team move.
But City responded within minutes of Richards’ goal, Kevin De Bruyne scoring his fifth, and probably final, goal against the Eagles to shift the momentum.
Once Omar Marmoush had levelled from close range soon after, it was always going be a tough battle for Richards and his teammates.
And the Eagles defender admitted after the game that Palace didn’t quite hit the standard required to beat the champions on their own turf.
“We just didn't do everything to the highest level,” he told TNT Sports. “That is what we've done so well, for last probably two or three months, we've been really strong defensively and we've taken our chances up front.
“And sadly today, I don't think we were strong enough. We conceded five, so there's definitely areas to improve.
“But against a team like City, we have to always be 100% and that wasn’t the case today.”
After a tough afternoon, Richards was keen to move on quickly, with Palace still having a major trophy and potential European qualification to play for this season.
“We definitely want to be fighting for one of those [European] spots. We still can do it in the league and we can also do it in the Cup. We just want to take them one game at a time. But I think everybody can see the European spots are up for grabs right now.
“So we can’t let it dent our confidence. We have four or five more games in the next two weeks. We are disappointed with today, but we have a chance to get a little bit of retribution on Wednesday.
“We just have to keep looking forward – we can’t let a day like today disappoint us for too long.”