City trash Crystal Palace to go third

1. A dominant performance from Manchester City saw them comprehensively beat Crystal Palace 5-0 on Saturday to move up to third on the Premier League table.Manchester City 5 Crystal Palace 0 Silva scores second-minute opener Kompany with emphatic finish De Bruyne puts City in command Sterling and Otamendi compete rout

Math Summary

David Silva scored the first goal of the afternoon in just the second minute of the match before an emphatic finish from Vincent Kompany doubled City's lead on 49 minutes.

Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi also got on the scoresheet in the second half to complete the rout.

Full Report

Silva put Pep Guardiola's side ahead within the first two minutes as he returned from injury. A poor Martin Kelly clearance off a Sterling cross saw the ball fall into the Spaniard's path and he made no mistake.

Palace's first attack looked promising when Wilfried Zaha found himself at the top of the box and went down after a Yaya Toure challenge but the referee deemed there was nothing in it.

De Bruyne had a chance to double City's lead when he volleyed high following a great lofted ball from Toure, while Leroy Sane was electric on the counter-attack and tested Wayne Hennessey twice, but the Welsh keeper was up to the task on each occasion.

After waves of attacks from the Citizens, Christian Benteke almost found an equaliser but his header was kept out with a great save from Willy Caballero which saw the game begin to open up. 

Silva almost started the second half as he did the first as he turned well in the box to fire a shot at goal, but it was away to the right and never bothering Hennessey.

A City corner in the 49th minute eventually saw De Bruyne pick out an unmarked Kompany, who brilliantly punished Palace as his powerful shot found the top corner.

De Bruyne almost outdid his captain's effort with a great free-kick from 25 yards out that clipped the top of the crossbar, although the Belgian made up for it a few minutes later beating Hennessey with a powerful left-footed shot. 

As the game entered the last 10 minutes a great overhead ball from Toure found Pablo Zabaleta, who nodded it to Sterling for the winger to fire in a fourth for City.

On the brink of full-time, De Bruyne's free-kick was headed home by Otamendi to sign off their win of the season.