The Blues moved into the Capital One Cup quarter-finals, inspired by the skilful Kelechi Iheanacho, who scored one and made a couple more in an excellent full debut.
Kevin De Bruyne, Wilfried Bony, Yaya Toure and Manu Garcia were also in the score-sheet as City moved within three games of another Wembley appearance
...City 5 Palace 1..
Manuel Pellegrini made six changes from the side that drew 0-0 against United on Sunday, though the lengthy injury list meant wholesale rotation was out of the question.
Palace also fielded a strong starting XI with this competition clearly ranking highly in both team’s silverware wish-list.
With more than 40,000 inside the Etihad, City should have given the home fans an early boost when De Bruyne sprinted clear towards goal but the Belgian’s shot across goal went a couple of feet wide with Bony well-placed in the middle.
Then Palace created a gilt-edge opportunity of their own on 14 minutes when Wilfried Zaha raced down the right before finding Joe Ledley in acres of space inside the box - but his shot was blocked and Willy Caballero did well keep out Yannick Bolasie from the rebound.
With not much between the teams as the opening period approached the halfway point, City edged in front as De Bruyne’s corner found the head of Bony who, with his back almost to goal, somehow arched his neck to power the ball past keeper Wayne Hennessey with 22 minutes played.
It gave the Blues an advantage they wouldn’t surrender, though there was the odd scare along the way.
City were repelling the Palace wing threat well with Aleks Kolarov containing Zaha and Bolasie well and just before the break, the lead was doubled following superb work from Iheanacho who burst into the box, drew two defenders towards him before sliding an inch-perfect cross to De Bruyne who made no mistake from close range.
It was a touch of class from a teenager who oozes confidence and class.
There was still enough time for Ledley to miss another sitter in first-half injury time after Caballero pushed out a low cross into the former Celtic midfielder’s path but he again fluffed his lines, shooting high, wide and not so handsome. A Palace goal at that stage could have changed the eventual outcome.
Alan Pardew’s side were down but not out and Martin Demichelis cleared off the line just three minutes after the re-start and City lost Zabaleta moments later with a nasty-looking knee injury after tackling Zaha
...City 5 Palace 1...
Then a clever move involving the impressive Iheanacho and Fernando gave Bony a chance for his second of the night, but with the goal at his mercy he shot high over the bar – though it didn’t prove to be a costly miss as the Blues were soon three goals to the good.
The game was put to bed as a contest when Iheanacho calmly buried a De Bruyne cross past Hennessey just before the hour-mark to book City a place in the last eight and the goal was just reward for the exciting Nigerian.
There was more punishment for the visitors when Yaya Toure stroked the resulting penalty home on 76 minutes.
Palace pulled back a goal – finally – when Damien Delaney powerfully headed home past Caballero, but the rampant Blues had the final say when sub Manu Garcia coolly slotted home the fifth after yet more good work by man-of-the-match Iheanacho.
A night to remember for the Blues’ youngsters and a home clash with Hull City now awaits in the last eight...
