David Silva’s strike after 114 seconds was the Blues’ fastest of the season and skipper Vincent Kompany doubled City’s lead three minutes after the re-start.
“Today we scored in the second minute of the first half and the third minute of the second half so it made things a lot easier and the fans, players and staff could enjoy the last 40 minutes,” said Guardiola.
“We had to pay attention to Wilfried Zaha today because of his pace and we dealt with that really well.
“We have to remember that not so many weeks ago, Palace destroyed Arsenal so I know their qualities.
“To score five against this team is very good and it is an important result for the mini-league fight that we are in for places in the top four.”
While City reflect on what might have been this season, the boss is clear in his mind why his side have not been in the title mix this campaign – though admits things could have been different with more clinical finishing.
He said: “Tottenham is the only team I can think of who created more chances than us. We are the best team in the league when it comes to creating chances - there is no competition.
“Our problem is finishing these chances - this is the most difficult thing in football. Against United we created 19 chances - no goals. The numbers don’t lie, though, we have created so many chances but haven’t scored enough goals
“I remember the game against Everton where we lost 4-0 and they only had four attempts at goal.
We created so many yet we lost so this is something we must work on. Today we scored so early so this made things easier.
“I told my players at half-time to score another goal or we could forget the win because had we arrived with 20 minutes to go with just a one goal lead, I think it would have been a difficult finish. Players are always looking at the clock, so scoring early of course helps.”
Pep also had special praise for David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, adding: “The teams with the top-quality players don’t lose the possession in the opposition area. David is one of these players. He is a player who plays in small spaces
“He rarely loses the ball. -I like this type of player. He has only had Premier League Player of the Month once in seven years. Next season we need to help him get of those awards.
“Kevin was also excellent today and he was unlucky hitting the bar again - I think that’s the tenth time it’s happened this season!”
