Manchester City moved into third place in the Premier League on goal difference as Pep Guardiola’s commitment to attack paid dividends against Crystal Palace, who have claimed some impressive scalps over the last month but were always on the back foot here. Given the number of times the home side’s fleet-footed front runners gave the visitors’ patched-up defence a chasing, the margin of victory could have been even more emphatic but otherwise City made light of the absence of Sergio Agüero with their biggest league win of the season to leave Palace looking elsewhere for confirmation of their safety.

Sam Allardyce enjoyed telling everyone how he tactically outsmarted Liverpool at Anfield a fortnight ago and, to his credit, he was just as willing to front up after a far less convincing performance resulted in his heaviest defeat with his present side. “City thrashed us and that was annoying because we gifted them all their chances,” the Palace manager said. “All five goals could have been avoided if we had defended properly and losing like that is unacceptable. We recovered from their first goal quite well, then fell into the same trap at the start of the second half. After that it was capitulation.”

Even before the goals started to go in, it was never difficult to tell the teams apart. Allardyce went with four full-backs, count them, strung in a line across the back. Guardiola made his own statement of intent by utilising just the one. Gaël Clichy operated in his normal position on the left while City deployed Fernandinho at right-back, watched by Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna and Aleksandar Kolarov from the bench.

That interested trio of judges would have awarded a poor score for positional discipline when Fernandinho wandered into midfield in the fourth minute to allow Patrick van Aanholt and Wilfried Zaha to make huge inroads down the Palace left, though Guardiola’s attacking line-up had already proved its worth by that point as City were in the lead.

It took David Silva just under two minutes to pierce the Palace defence, collecting a return pass from Raheem Sterling via a terrible headed clearance from Martin Kelly to score with a volley from close to the penalty spot. If Kelly should have dealt with Sterling’s attempted cross more effectively than merely turning the ball back into a danger area, that is one of the risks one takes when a full-back is asked to play centre-half. City were also taking a huge gamble in getting Fernandinho to look after Zaha but, when the Palace winger found enough space to set up a cross, Clichy was able to reach the ball before Christian Benteke.

City looked slick going forward, with Fernandinho bringing a save from Wayne Hennessey, Sterling seeing a shot cleared off the line and wasting an opportunity by trying to set up Gabriel Jesus when he might have been better going for goal himself, but every time Zaha got the ball he was able to ask questions of the home defence. Vincent Kompany accepted a booking with a shrug on the half-hour, blatantly blocking Zaha with an indication that he had been left with no choice. On the next occasion Zaha eluded Fernandinho it led to a cross from the right and Willy Caballero had to make a save from Benteke’s header.

Many a manager might have made a change at the interval, though of course Guardiola did not and his boldness was rewarded within four minutes of the restart. When a half-cleared corner came back to Kevin De Bruyne, he tricked the Palace defence into expecting a cross before cutting the ball back to Kompany on the floor, and the captain responded by summoning power and accuracy in a first-time shot.

A fine Hennessey save was needed to keep out a well-struck free-kick from De Bruyne but Palace’s resistance did not last long after that. Leroy Sané missed a chance before Jesus set up De Bruyne for the third, the midfielder arriving to take the striker’s short pass in his stride and clip a low shot past the goalkeeper.

Zabaleta came on to take over at right-back for the last 22 minutes and was involved in the fourth goal, nodding Yaya Touré’s cross into Sterling’s path for the winger to apply a left-foot finish, then Nicolás Otamendi completed the scoring with a spectacular flying header from De Bruyne’s free-kick. Jesus had left the field by then, oddly goalless on a day when all around him seemed to be filling their boots, though City will be relieved to see the young Brazilian manage more than 80 minutes without mishap.