Man City Condemn Crystal Palace to 6th Straight Loss of the Season

Crystal Palace have seen their early-season misery compounded by yet another loss, going down 5-0 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Pep

Crystal Palace have seen their early-season misery compounded by yet another loss, going down 5-0 to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola surprisingly benched Gabriel Jesus in favour of German ace Leroy Sane, while Sergio Aguero kept his place up front.

The Eagles, meanwhile, were led by Belgian star Christian Benteke, with former Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho making his first Premier League start for the club since making his move permanent.

Sakho nearly opened the scoring in the 6th minute, but against his own side, attempting to clear Kevin de Bruyne's long ball with his head but almost putting it into the back of Palace's net, hitting the post.

Chelsea loanee Ruben Loftus Cheek would carve out a chance for himself approaching the 20th minute, weaving his way past the City defence to shoot from just outside of the box to hit the opposition's left post.

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The midfielder found himself with another opportunity around ten minutes later, but struck across the goal after a rebound fell his way in the box.

Danilo was made to come on and replace Benjamin Mendy in the 30th minute, with the left-back having hurt himself and getting showed a yellow card following a foul on Andros Townsend.

City finally broke the deadlock just ahead of halftime. Sane, who has been in immense form this season, found the back of the net with a deft flick resulting from a flashy first touch that put the ball over a defender's head en route to goal from David Silva's clever pass.

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The home side went into the half with a 1-0 lead, but Palace couldn't complain about chances, having seen a good few go to waste in the half.

The second half saw City race out of the blocks, doubling their lead through Raheem Sterling's strike off Sane's cross from the left flank six minutes from the whistle.

The English attacker put a second past the London side, giving City a 3-0 lead in the 59th minute, getting on the end of Aguero's unselfish ball across the goal after De Bruyne found the Argentinian with a great aerial ball.

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Sterling would leave the pitch shortly after, with Guardiola sending summer acquisition Bernardo Silva on in his place.

Aguero got himself on the score-sheet as well later on, heading Sane's cross past the Palace stopper to put City up 4-0.

The resident side capped things off with a quintuple of goals, with Fabian Delph scoring a belter of a goal from outside of the box, leaving Palace and their new boss Roy Hodgson facing a real uphill battle. 

This latest result means Palace have failed to win their last seven league matches, as well as going well over 500 minutes without scoring.