Goals from David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi were no more than Manchester City deserved as they outclassed their visitors at the Etihad Stadium.
Silva’s inclusion in the City starting XI was something of a surprise, following Guardiola’s pessimistic assessment of his fitness on Friday, but he started and finished the move that put the hosts ahead.
A ball over the top to Raheem Sterling was lifted back across goal by the England international, and Martin Kelly’s poor defensive header landed kindly for Silva to get City off to a flying start with a low drive into the bottom-right corner – his 50th goal for the club.
City had their tails up and were on the attack again shortly after. An apologetic Michael Oliver thwarted them on that occasion, the referee prematurely blowing for a free kick when the advantage should have been played.
Crystal Palace’s unfamiliar defence, featuring Jeff Schlupp at centre back, was being given a thorough examination by a hungry City attack, led alone by Gabriel Jesus in the absence of the injured Sergio Aguero. Fernandinho’s strike from distance stung the palms of goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey after 10 minutes.
Silva was everywhere for City, showing no lingering symptoms of the injury that has kept him sidelined for two weeks, and the only frustration for Guardiola will have been that his team were unable score the second goal merited by their first-half dominance – Sane twice denied by Hennessey.
Palace did show signs of life before the interval, but Wilfried Zaha’s tame cross from space on the left halted a promising move, before Willy Caballero got down brilliantly to keep out Benteke’s header.
City’s second arrived just four minutes into the second half, though, when Kompany hammered an effort into the top-right corner after being found by De Bruyne in space inside the Palace box.
De Bruyne himself clipped the top of the crossbar with a free kick soon after, before netting the goal that killed off the game with 30 minutes still to play.
A move that started with a Palace throw-in, ended with Jesus touching the ball on to De Bruyne at the edge of the box, and the Belgian picked his spot in the bottom-right corner. Hennessey got a hand to the shot, but was unable to keep it out.
City made it 4-0 eight minutes from time, when Sterling fired in a left-footed half-volley from the centre of the penalty area amid non-existent Palace defending, and Otamendi headed City’s fifth in injury time – a fair reflection of the gulf in quality between the two sides on the day.
–This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.com
