Manchester City got back to winning ways as they comfortably beat relegation-battling Crystal Palace 5-0 at the Etihad Stadium, which puts them above Liverpool in third.
City came into the game on the back of consecutive draws to Manchester United and Middlesbrough, with Pep Guardiola’s men looking to strengthen their top-four position by beating Crystal Palace, who have recently beaten sides such as Liverpool and Chelsea.
Palace are currently fighting for Premier League survival and previously lost to Burnley 2-0 at home, putting the Eagles in danger of dropping down into the Championship. Despite this, Palace have the firepower to beat anyone on their day, with the likes of Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha causing plenty of problems for opposition defences.
The game overall was a complete domination in both halves by Manchester City, with Palace pegged back in their own half for the majority of the game. David Silva, starting his 200th game for the club and coming back from injury, slotted in his 50th goal for the Citizens after two minutes. The goal came through Raheem Sterling, with his cross finding the Spaniard after Palace failed to clear their lines.
Just after half time, Vincent Kompany rifled in from Kevin De Bruyne’s cross to put City in a commanding position going into the rest of the game.
De Bruyne, after hitting the bar with a free-kick, calmly slotted in a third goal from the edge of the box, after a lay-off from Gabriel Jesus, to further dent Palace’s confidence. Wayne Hennessey, who was making some smart saves previous to this, could have done better to save the shot.
In the latter stages of the game, Raheem Sterling volleyed in a fourth after latching on to a header from substitute Pablo Zabaleta to smash the ball into the bottom corner. In the final moments, Nicolas Otamendi scored his first goal in nearly two years to make it 5-0 to the Citizens, and secure a crucial three points in the battle for top four.
Here are our City player ratings from the game.
