Silva Service: Man City Demolish Crystal Palace With Five-Goal Extravaganza At The Etihad (Photos & Video)

Chris Wright

6th, May 2017

de-bruyne-sane-man-city-palace

Man City demolished Crystal Palace at the Etihad in the Premier League’s early kick-off to move into third place, above Liverpool on goal difference.

With several first-choice centre-backs missing, Palace’s defensive resistance held firm for all of one minute and 54 seconds.

Indeed, it was David Silva who got things rolling with a smart close-range volley after being set up nicely by Martin Kelly’s naff header…

In fairness, Palace did managed to hold City to their one-goal lead until half-time, but a second-half onslaught saw the away team’s bulwark dissolve like Weetabix in warm milk.

It took just four minutes for Vincent Kompany to double City’s lead after the restart, the Belgian whipping home a lovely first-time strike from 18 yards after finding himself completely unmarked from a corner…

Ten minutes passed before City made it three through Kevin de Bruyne, who latched onto Gabriel Jesus’ square pass to spank a low finish past Wayne Hennessey…

Palace then suffered yet another injury amid their defensive ranks when Joel Ward suffered a grisly broken nose in a collision with Leroy Sane.

Unfortunately for the right-back, Sam Allardyce had quite literally just made his third and final substitution of the afternoon, leaving the right-back to soldier on manfully with a skewiff conk and nostrils jammed up with blood-soaked cotton wool.

Showing little sympathy for Ward’s discomfort, City continued to squeeze and sure enough, the fourth goal came along in the 81st minute – Raheem Sterling capitalising on yet more slack defending to drive one in at the near post unencumbered…

Just to cap it all off, City made it five in stoppage time as De Bruyne provided his second assist of the match to give Nicolas Otamendi all the ammunition he needed to fire a diving header through Hennessey’s plaintive waft…

Allardyce was left to bemoan

And so, Pep and his acolytes remain on course for a top-four finish, four points above the ‘Europa’ line with three games left to play.

Palace remain in 16th place with their top flight safety still yet to be mathematically secured and with a big’un against fellow relegation-botherers Hull City next up on the agenda.