Pep Guardiola greeted Kevin De Bruyne's performance after the playmaker revealed the Comeback of Manchester City in their thunderous 5-2 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Ebereechi Eze and Chris Richards gave Palace in a 2-0 lead in the Etihad Stadium after 21 minutes, but City responded in an explicit way.
De Bruyne scored their first goal with a 25-year free kick before Omar Marmoush was the same shortly thereafter. The Belgian then founded Mateo Kovacic for the third of the city in the second half, before James McATee and Nico O'Reilly had completed the routes.
It is a victory that City moved up to the Premier League until fourth, where Newcastle United and Chelsea only played on Sunday, so that they put in the Rijstoel for Champions League qualification.
City Captain De Bruyne, who announced last week that he will leave the club at the end of the season, has both scored and helped in 28 different Premier League matches, with only Mohamed Salah (42), Wayne Rooney (36), Thierry Henry (32) and Alan Shearer (31) does this.
He also became only the sixth player who scored 30 goals from outside the penalty box in the Premier League, which incorporated his fifth direct free kick in this game.
“[It’s] The Kevin that we have known for many years, “Guardiola told BBC Sport.” I know he has struggled for the past year and a half.
“He is free without pain and completely different. The way we played has helped him a lot with incredible runners, the young boys, the full-backs.
“I would say that we all played very well. We were 2-0 lower and we made a lot, and I said we played well during the break.
“Our momentum was fueled with a free kick from Kevin, and then we played a really good game, since we were 2-0 lower and think about how Crystal Palace was in the last games.”
A concern for City was that Ederson left halfway through the second half because of an injury, in which the Brazilian had previously offered his fourth Premier League assist of the season when he set up McATEE.
And Guardiola was not sure of the size of the injury.
“I don't know,” he said about Ederson. “He made the pass and said he felt something and couldn't continue.”
Palace was unbeaten in seven games in all matches prior to their journey to the Etihad Stadium and had not lost on the road against Nottingham Forest since 21 October.
They could have had a bigger lead in the first half, but Eze did not see a second strike allowed for offside before City started their comeback.
Palace lost a Premier League match in which they led for the first time since August 2022 (also away from City) with two or more goals, and Oliver Glasner was disappointed about the way they admit.
“The defeat really hurts, because if you are two with two and the third scores, we had a fantastic start,” he told BBC Sport. “But we have admitted the goals too easily.
“We have not defended at our highest level, so we can do this better. A team like Man City will punish it. We were not defending at our highest level today, and that is why we admitted too many goals.”
“We have to accept that City is a top team. If you are not at your highest level, they can always find the gaps, and they can score a goal. Especially after their first they came faster, and after the second they had their rebound. I think it was difficult after the first goal.
“The players have done their best, but we will learn from this game. If you play a team like City, you must be at your highest level in defense.”
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