Kevin De Bruyne steals the show with incredible performance against Crystal Palace

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Manchester City ran riot at home against Crystal Palace and have moved into third position as a result. The match ended 5-0 and it could have been more on another day.

Pep Guardiola has been criticised in the media this season, but this was always going to be a long-term project and this performance shows that his side are heading in the right direction.

There is a lot of work to be done in the summer, especially in the full-back areas, but on the basis of this display, they should be challenging for major honours next year.

Kevin De Bruyne was imperious on Saturday and was given a rating of 10 on WhoScored, highlighting the influence that he had on the game. David Silva was also excellent and was given the club man-of-the-match award, but his Belgian team-mate was arguably even better.

He scored the third goal to give his side a commanding lead in the match and ensure that there wasn’t a nervy finish to the game. It was an excellent finish from the midfielder, after a pullback from Gabriel Jesus. Wayne Hennessey didn’t cover himself in glory in the Palace goal, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the finish.

His performance deserved a goal, but it was his creativity that was most impressive. He was central to City’s attacks on Saturday and completed an incredible seven key passes during the match, which was more than any other player on the pitch by quite some distance – the next best was Fernandinho with three.

His set piece deliveries caused problems for the visitors all afternoon and one finally led to a goal in stoppage time. The 25-year-old put the ball on a sixpence and gave Nicolas Otamendi a simple task of heading in for his first goal of the season.

That was his second assist of the afternoon, as he also set up the team’s second goal. After a poor delivery from a corner, De Bruyne recovered quickly and got onto the ball again to pick out a good ball to Vincent Kompany, who then finished the move off with an excellent effort.

Although the goal will be remembered for the strike from Kompany, the pass wasn’t an easy one to pick out and the precision from the Belgian was hugely impressive.

Despite his influence on the game, the midfielder was only dispossessed on one occasion, showing just how reliable he was in possession at the Etihad Stadium.

The 25-year-old doesn’t have a lot of defensive responsibility in his current role and that is displayed by his stats. He completed only one ball retrieval during the match.

That said, he pressed the ball well and forced Palace defenders into several errors in their own half of the pitch. It is this aggressive press that Guardiola wants his attack to carry out and on the evidence of this match, his players are starting to do that.

This season hasn’t gone to plan for Manchester City as they are going to finish without a trophy, but this performance will fill them with hope heading into the summer. They were excellent throughout the entire match and De Bruyne was the pick of the individual performers.

On his day, he is one of the best players in the league and City supporters will be hoping that he can play at this level on a more consistent basis next year. If the club can get their recruitment right this summer, they should push on and become a real force in the Premier League and Europe.

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