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Stones brace moves Man City into second with comfortable win over Crystal Palace

Manchester City have moved into second place on the table after a resounding 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.

John Stones opened the scoring after 26 minutes when he connected on a fantastic outside-of-the-boot cross from Kevin De Bruyne, his 100th assist for City since joining in 2015.

The Sky Blues made it two shortly after half-time when Ilkay Gundogan scored with an amazing strike from outside the box.

Stones grabbed his second during a scramble in the box, while Raheem Sterling converted a sublime free-kick with a few minutes remaining.

After Manchester United and Liverpool drew earlier in the day, City now move into second-place and are now two points behind their neighbours with a game in hand.

"This is through the quality of the players, commitment and focus," City boss Pep Guardiola said of the win. "We struggled the last two seasons to beat them here, we did a fantastic game.

"I don't want to send any messages. It is Aston Villa on Wednesday. It is one game at a time. A few weeks ago we were points behind Liverpool and we win a few games and that's what we have to do. Now I will drink a good glass of wine and then think about Aston Villa."

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Freddie Taylor

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