A dejected Frank Lampard and other City players after suffering a shock defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday. (Source: Reuters)

Crystal Palace left Manchester City’s hopes of retaining their Premier League title in tatters after beating Manuel Pellegrini’s side 2-1 at Selhurst Park on Monday.

Defeat kept fourth-placed City nine points behind leaders Chelsea and seemingly now in a battle to finish above Arsenal and Manchester United.

Chelsea, who have eight matches to play, have 70 points, followed by Arsenal on 63, Manchester United on 62 and City on 61. That trio all have seven matches remaining.

Impressive Palace defended resolutely to withstand early City pressure before taking the lead through Glenn Murray after 34 minutes.

He swept in from close range after Scott Dann’s shot bounced off goalkeeper Joe Hart’s leg into his path.

The goal stood despite City claiming Palace had been offside in the build-up, but there was no argument about Palace’s second three minutes into the second half.

Fernandinho brought down Murray 20 metres from goal and Jason Puncheon swept his curling free kick over the wall and past Hart into the corner of the goal.

City came to Palace after a run of patchy form with only four wins in their last 13 matches in all competitions and were almost dealt an early blow in the second minute when Wilfried Zaha blasted his angled drive over.

City soon settled with David Silva and Sergio Aguero combining well up front, and Aguero came close to opening the scoring after 19 minutes but saw his shot cannon away off the foot of Julian Speroni’s right-hand post.

Palace, who looked set for a fight against relegation until Alan Pardew replaced Neil Warnock as manager at the start of January, showed why they have taken 19 points out of a possible 30 since then with some resolute defending, and the knack of taking their chances when they came.

The match also had echoes of Liverpool’s visit to Selhurst Park 11 months ago when they were leading 3-0 with 11 minutes to play, only for Palace to end their title hopes by drawing 3-3.