Six days after being condemned for their performance in the derby stalemate at Old Trafford, Manchester City roared back from two goals down to beat Crystal Palace in a thrilling encounter at Etihad Stadium.
After their defence had been badly exposed for Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards to put the visitors into a comfortable lead, City hit back after Palace had a third goal ruled out by a close call from the new semi-automated offside technology.
Outgoing City skipper Kevin de Bruyne was at the centre of the astounding reversal of fortunes.
First De Bruyne levelled as he deceived Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson with a superb 33rd-minute free-kick. Omar Marmoush levelled before the break with his seventh goal for City, then Mateo Kovacic drove De Bruyne’s lay-off into the bottom corner a minute into the second half.
James McAtee finally found the target after wasting a couple of excellent chances on his first Premier League start, dashing on to Ederson’s punt downfield before rounding Henderson and applying the finish. Nico O’Reilly’s deflected effort completed the scoring as City hit five goals in a home Premier League game for the first time this season.
It was a thrilling way to end an uncharacteristic run of six City games which had produced a total of 10 goals.
More importantly, it took them back into fourth spot in the Premier League and applied the pressure on Chelsea and Newcastle in the scrap for Champions League qualification.
There was some bad news as goalkeeper Ederson went down after feeling a pain in his leg as he went to make a routine second-half clearance and had to be replaced by Stefan Ortega.
