Crystal Palace 1 Manchester City 3 A Sterling Effort

There are some games which can set the agenda. This is one of those games.

In politics and economics they refer to ‘bellwether’ results where a result in a particular place indicates a trend is set and wider results can be extrapolated.

Crystal Palace away is a bellwether match for Manchester City. In a run in where there are no friendly fixtures, no dead certs this match is sufficiently difficult enough to be considered a litmus test for what else may come.

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For City to come away not just with 3 points but with a solid away performance is a clarion call to rest of our season. Not only is the title within our own destiny, but Kevin De Bruyne is back too.

City had Ilkay Gundogan, our want away midfielder, in the holding role which belongs to Fernandinho. But Palace gave him so much time and space it was as though they did not know who he was.

Our first goal came from a turnover in the Palace attack but was down to the creativity and vision of De Bruyne. He hit a slide rule pass which was threaded past Van Anholt and released Raheem Sterling who struck a sweet shot into the goal.

I realise describing the pass as a slide rule pass may be one of those references which pass many of our younger audience by! At 52 I can barely remember slide rulers! Maybe younger people can just Google it?

City retained possession in a display of total dominance. Making a difficult looking away game seem like a walk in the park. Palace were not so much overwhelmed as strangled in a slow and painful death.

The second goal really cemented the game and it came from Sterling again. This time he was fed by Leroy Sane and he thudded a shot into the net which made a delightful noise.

Whether it was City who tired or it was the simple business of conserving energy, was unclear but Palace clawed one back with 10 minutes to go. Their goal came from a free kick and we were afflicted by a momentary switching off of all conscious thought.

City fans were anxious in those minutes but the players were not. Keep ball was practised and we put out any feint hopes of a Palace equaliser when Jesus scored a third.

This was a performance of great importance. Raheem Sterling is top of the league, at least until later on.