Kelechi runs the show as City go back on attack
AT A cost of £350,000, Kelechi Iheanacho has always been an exception among Manchester City’s multi-million-pound squad. The Nigerian teenager has never looked out of place, however.
Not when he scored a 90th-minute winner to earn City three points with his first Premier League goal against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park last month, and not last night when he tormented Alan Pardew’s side again to put his team through to the Capital One Cup quarterfinals that will now be without a London representative.
Iheanacho, 19, scored one and made two more, justifying Manuel Pellegrini’s faith in promoting him to the first team, and outshining a significantly more expensive striker in £28million Wilfried Bony.
Bony also scored here but should have had a hat-trick, with Kevin De Bruyne, Yaya Toure and substitute Manu Garcia completing a comfortable passage for City.
Only the sight of Pablo Zabaleta leaving the field on a stretcher with a recurrence of medial ligament damage soured their night.
City have now scored 16 goals in their last three domestic home games, making their cautious approach to Sunday’s bore draw in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford all the more perplexing.
Even in the continued absence of Sergio Aguero and David Silva, they packed far too much punch for Palace, with the prodigiously gifted Iheanacho leading the way.
‘I didn’t have doubts about him,’ said Pellegrini. ‘I see how he works every day. He’s a very good player and not just a finisher because he assisted on two goals. In this moment it’s very important for the team to have Kelechi and Bony. Sergio is injured and they can play together as they did tonight.
‘Kelechi is a young player, very impressive, but Bony knows he has all the trust of me and the team. Aguero is impossible to replace but we have other options.’
One of them is De Bruyne, the £54m man who could have put City ahead inside two minutes when he raced towards goal but scooped his shot well wide of Wayne Hennessey’s left-hand post.
The next opportunity fell to Palace, and it was one they were to regret not taking as Joe Ledley’s shot was blocked by Martin Demichelis and Willy Caballero smothered at the feet of Yannick Bolasie.City went ahead in the 22nd minute and Palace defender Adrian Mariappa was heavily involved, first conceding a corner and then struggling to pick up Bony when Aleksandar Kolarov delivered from the left.
The Ivory Coast striker’s body and head were twisted awkwardly but he still managed to direct the ball beyond Hennessey and into the bottom corner. De Bruyne doubled City’s lead in the 44th minute but he was indebted to the selflessness of Iheanacho. The youngster could have gone for goal when Zabaleta played him in behind the Palace defence, but waited for the right moment to square the ball to his team-mate, who had an open goal.
Having miscued twice in the first half, Bony was guilty of an horrendous miss within moments of the restart when he ballooned an effort high over the bar with only Hennessey to beat.
And City almost paid the price when Mile Jedinak beat Caballero to Jordon Mutch’s free-kick and Demichelis had to scramble his goalbound header off the line.
Zabaleta had already had his head bandaged after a first-half clash with Bolasie — which left the Congolese winger needing a number of stitches — when the City defender was injured in a challenge with Wilfried Zaha and left the field on a stretcher.
He had only returned to action in the last month following a knee ligament injury, and another lengthy lay-off would be a concern for Pellegrini as tries to cope with the twin demands of the Premier League and Champions League.
‘Pablo had the same injury he had one month ago, the same ligament, the same knee,’ confirmed the City manager. ‘We cannot know more until tomorrow.’
Iheanacho made sure of victory with the goal his performance deserved in the 59th minute.
Jesus Navas’s cross ran through to De Bruyne on the opposite flank and he played the ball back into the youngster, who took a touch before guiding it expertly beyond Hennessey. Damien Delaney’s foul on Eliaquim Mangala enabled Toure to score City’s fourth from the spot before the Palace centre back partially made amends by heading in from Bolasie’s corner in the 89th minute.
But Iheanacho was not done yet, playing in substitute Garcia to score City’s fifth and complete Pardew’s heaviest defeat as Palace’s boss.
Pardew made a point of going over to the visiting supporters at the end of the game. ‘It wasn’t so much an apology as a thank you,’ said Pardew.
‘We need to make sure we keep our fans with us.
‘The trouble with City is they’re really difficult when they take the lead. Every time they had a great chance, they punished us.’