Always nice waking up to a win, but even better when you know half a dozen first team players were rested, two of our academy products scored and we managed five against Premier League opposition.
Having started fairly slowly with Bolasie and Jedinak both wasting good opportunities to put the Eagles ahead, we opened the scoring from a corner (!) Who’d have thought it?! Kolarov played a nice, whipped corner into the danger area and Bony fought off Mariappa to head home. What was nice about the goal was knowing that to have people like Mangala, Bony, Kompany etc in the box means corners can now become of use to us, where as in the past they’ve struggled to even beat the first man.
This game was a lot about a kid called Kelechi and he proved vital in our second goal. After some nice interplay between Bony and Zabaleta, Kelechi was played in at an angle. You’d expect a 19-year-old with the expectation he has on him to shoot, but this guy is different and that’s what makes him special. The Nigerian played it square and took everyone out of the game to find De Bruyne free in space to tap home. 2-0.
Going in at 2-0 gave us some breathing-space to take it easy in the second half, but we didn’t stop there. The prodigious talent Kelechi was on hand to grab us a third as, guess who – Kevin De Bruyne, was the one to set him up. The striker took a touch and finished instinctively before any Palace defender could have a say. This kid looks special and looks as though he’s been playing at a top level for a sustained period of time. Thank god he’s a blue.
Our fourth goal was won by a man who’s had a very mixed time since he’s been at City. Personally, I have and always will be his biggest advocate. I think he mixes physicality, aggression and speed with measured tackling and a varied passing range. Mangala. Damien Delaney stupidly pulled the Frenchmen down right in front of the official to hand us our fourth and a penalty, which Yaya Touré happily tucked away.
Delaney found slight redemption with a consolation goal after a nice cross in from Yannick Bolasie was met by the Irishman who nodded home.
Our fifth came from a guy who holds himself and plays like David Silva. Kelechi had his say, again, with a lovely, measured pass across the Palace defence which found Manu Garcia who slotted home cooly for 5-0, not bad for a 17-year-old eh?
All in all, a goods night work. Drawing Hull at home for our quarter final clash is a blessing and possibly the easiest draw we could’ve asked for. Bring on Norwich at home.
