“It will be a big, big battle until the last game”, Guardiola – 07/05/2017.
Goals: Silva (2'), Kompany (49'), De Bruyne (59'), Sterling (82'),
Otamendi (90'+2);
Otamendi (90'+2);
Line Up (4-1-4-1/3-2-4-1) (match ratings in brackets);
Caballero (7.5)
Fernandinho (6.5)
Otamendi (8)
Kompany (8)
Clichy (8)
Toure (7)
Sterling (7.5)
De Bruyne (8.5)
Sané (7), (Navas 84' (5.5))
Silva (9), (Zabaleta 68' (7))
Jesus (6.5), (Iheanacho 84' (5.5))
Caballero (7.5)
Fernandinho (6.5)
Otamendi (8)
Kompany (8)
Clichy (8)
Toure (7)
Sterling (7.5)
De Bruyne (8.5)
Sané (7), (Navas 84' (5.5))
Silva (9), (Zabaleta 68' (7))
Jesus (6.5), (Iheanacho 84' (5.5))
Referee; Michael Oliver (4)
Stats;Possession, 69%/31%; Shots, 26(12)/5(2); Corners, 9/3; Fouls, 12/8
At 1-0 at the end of the first half, this game had the familiar feel of a film you've watched before, sort of enjoyed, but know the ending will leave you disappointed and wishing the director had been more imaginative. There were the usual plot elements; vast amounts of possession, slick passing up to the final third, and some heart stopping moments in the box. It had the hero, "The Magician" David Silva, wherever he went creating magic moments, and conjuring space out of nothing. And of course we had the villain, the "man in black", Michael Oliver, allowing "mild peril" all over the pitch by following his own set of rules where it came to foul play against City players, and seemingly unable to find his yellow card, as his dastardly plot to get a City player carried off on a stretcher unfolded. There was even the one perfect scene early on where Silva, having ghosted into the box to get the return on his cross to Sterling, smiled and rifled the ball into the bottom right. But you knew, just knew, that the script would get spoiled in the second half, the evil villain would pull a terrible decision out of the bag, and the foe would get an undeserved equalizer.
Except, this time there was a new script. Four minutes into the second half, with City playing with equal intensity as the first, DeBruyne found space to angle a low daisy cutting cross to Kompany in the right of the box, and the big man produced a strikers finish as he rifled the ball into the top right, 2-0.
From that point on Crystal Palace were never in with a shout. City kept fighting for more goals until the final whistle. The third goal came from an ever battling Gabriel Jesus fighting to retain possession on the right, and then rolling the ball to the revitalised Kevin DeBruyne to sweetly smashing the ball hard to the right of the Palace keeper. 3-0.
And it only got better. Pep was afforded the early luxury of substituting his star man Silva on 64'. Allowing old war dog Zabeleta on to stifle the remnants of fight from Palace's ex-red Saha, and set up yet another finely worked goal as he deftly headed back DeBruynes pass to Sterling, who this time without a hint of panic, allowed the ball the come across his body before cracking the ball in the net. 4-0.
The icing on the cake was from the second of City's re-invigortaed centre half pairing, Nicolas Otamendi; losing his marker at DeBruynes injury time free-kick and heading home City's fifth. A truly great performance capped by a deserving scoreline.
This leaves the battle for Champions League football still in City's own hands. With three games to go, Leicester (H), West Brom (H), and finally Watford (A), City have the old cliche of three finals to play. They will need to match this performance in each of them to get the bare minimum fans would have expected from the season. Hopefully they will remember this new script and become masters of their own destiny at last. #CTID.
@l0ngwayfr0mh0me
