premier league : Manchester City 4 – 0 Crystal Palace

Centre-back John Stones scored his first league goals for Manchester City as his side beat Crystal Palace 4-0 to go second in the Premier League table.

City dominated the early proceedings and Stones headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s sublime outside-of-the-boot cross after 26 minutes.

Gabriel Jesus had a good chance to extend their lead shortly before half-time but his header lacked the power needed to beat Vicente Guaita.

Ilkay Gundogan’s powerful effort from 20 yards doubled City’s lead after the break before Stones reacted quickest to Guaita’s parry to score again with 22 minutes remaining.

Raheem Sterling completed the scoring with a spectacular free-kick as City recorded a fifth straight Premier League victory.

The result sees them leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Leicester City into second, two points behind leaders Manchester United with a match in hand.

Palace stay 13th with 23 points from 19 matches.

Gundogan has scored four goals in his last six Premier League matches, as many as he’d scored in his previous 55 games in the competition. His six goals in all competitions this season are his joint-most for the Club in a single campaign.

Match-Stats :

COMINGUP NEXT :

• Man City will host Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday 20^th January.
• Crystal Palace will host West Ham on 26^th January.

Post-Game Reaction :

PEP GUARDIOLA, Manchester City Manager:

“We didn’t concede, we had to be patient and Palace defended really well. We were so stable, it is an important victory.

“When we handle top teams we are fortunate to have this quality. In the final third when Kevin de Bruyne makes the assist, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling put it in the top corner, and John Stones was on fire in the box.

“It’s easy for me when you have these players.”

Roy Hodgson, Crystal Palace Manager :

“In the first-half we did well,” he told Sky Sports in his post-match interview. “Obviously they had a lot of the ball which we knew they would have but I don’t think they created that many chances, and I think on the whole we did very well.

“I’m afraid we made a couple of quite blatant mistakes in the second-half, often playing the ball back too often to the goalkeeper and it cost us.

“The goals they scored were fantastic goals but if we could have done what we did in the first-half throughout the game we could have made it a bit harder, and we wouldn’t have lost by this margin.”