Manchester City ease into round five as Sam Allardyce's Crystal Palace struggles continue

Manchester City gave a glimpse of their glistening future here at Selhurst Park, beating Crystal Palace 3-0 to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup.

This competition is not Pep Guardiola’s priority, Kevin De Bruyne was on the bench and Sergio Aguero was left at home, with City preparing for a Premier League trip to West Ham United on Wednesday. But he fielded a thrilling young front three of Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling, who was the oldest of them at just 22.

Sane, Sterling and Gabriel tore Palace apart, combining for City’s brilliant first two goals, before Yaya Toure capped it off with a brilliant free-kick at the end. They all played with imagination, skill, but above all with pace, providing exactly the type of threat Guardiola wants from his forwards. Guardiola hailed them post-match as the “future” of the club, and it was easy to imagine watching them that this could be City’s front line for the next 10 years.

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As well as Sane and Sterling played, Gabriel was the most impressive of the three. He set up Sterling’s goal, played a part in Sane’s and should have grabbed one for himself at the end. All of this in his first start in English football, after just one substitute appearance on Saturday. He played through a heavy second-half hailstorm and some pretty rudimentary tackling but looked remarkably well-adjusted to English football. He looked strong, canny, enthusiastic and brave. On this showing City have bought well.

This was not as complete a performance as City’s 5-0 win at West Ham in the third round. But it was not far away. The first 15 minutes or so of this match was the most one-sided opening spell to any game this season. It is no exaggeration to say that Crystal Palace could not get a touch on the ball, and City swarmed all over them from the start. David Silva and Sane both missed chances to give City the lead.

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As is often the case, City could not maintain their intensity and they let Palace in a few times on the break. Vincent Kompany, making his first start since November, completing his first 90 minutes since September, had to cut out a few counter-attacks But just as their control of the first half started to slip, they took the lead with a brilliant opening goal. Jesus dropped back into midfield, picked up the ball, turned and played a perfect pass through to Sterling. Running through on goal, Sterling shaped to shoot across Wayne Hennessey but tucked the ball into the near post instead. Jesus nearly scored himself just before the half-time whistle, but Hennessey saved.

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City took their foot off the gas early in the second half and nearly allowed Palace back into it. But Palace never had enough quality to punish them, half-time substitute Loic Remy volleying their best chance over the bar. When City turned it back up they killed the game with a brilliant second goal.

Silva ran forward with the ball down the middle of the pitch. Gabriel made a clever decoy run across the box, dragging the defence with him. Sane ran around the back, behind Martin Kelly, and Silva’s pass found him. Sane finished into the bottom corner. A clever team just as precise and incisive as the first.

Gabriel still wanted a goal for himself and should have had one when he beat Kelly and skipped past Hennessey in the last minute, only to slip on the wet turf.

There was just enough time for a third, and it came not from the debutant but from a City veteran. Toure had a free-kick 30 yards from goal which he curled into the near top corner of the goal. City’s past did not want the whole afternoon to be about City’s future.

Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey; Ward, Kelly, Tomkins, Schlupp (Fryers, 75); Flamini, Ledley; Lee, Mutch (McArthur, 65), Townsend; Benteke (Remy, 45).

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Caballero; Sagna, Kompany, Kolarov, Clichy; Toure, Delph; Sterling (Navas, 66), Silva (Fernando, 78), Sane (Nolito, 84); Gabriel.