Saturday 16 January 2016 18:48, UK
Manuel Pellegrini praised Fabian Delph's role in Manchester City's 4-0 win over Crystal Palace at the Etihad.
Delph's long-range strike slipped under Wayne Hennessey's dive to open the scoring against the visitors, who arrived with the Premier League's best away defensive record.
And City's star performers profited from the space that followed as two from Sergio Aguero and David Silva's late fourth got the home side back among the goals after Wednesday's stalemate with Everton.
Pellegrini said of Delph: "I'm very happy with his performance. He had bad luck at the start of the season with different injuries. He has settled down now, has a good work ethic and gives us good build-up."
And speaking to Sky Sports, the City boss outlined the value of the opening goal, saying: "It was very important to score the first goal so we had more space.
"With more space, this team is more difficult to stop, with so many good players attacking, and that allowed us to score more goals. Without space, we are a team that always scores goals, with space of course we are even more dangerous."
Aguero and Silva have spent time out of the side injured this season, but both looked sharp and they combined for a fourth goal Pellegrini described as "beautiful" as the Argentina international passed up a hat-trick chance to tee up his team-mate.
"It's normal after injuries they cannot be in top form immediately," Pellegrini said. "That's why I didn't want David to play the last game - it's too much to play two games of 90 minutes.
"So we're using the whole squad, but of course top players are the players that make a difference."
Pellegrini also felt able to start with Yaya Toure and Raheem Sterling on the bench as Kelechi Iheanacho started, and he said: "To have made so many changes but win the way we did is very useful for the future."
Aleksandar Kolarov was stretchered off during the second half, and Pellegrini said: "He has a kick in his calf, and we'll see on Monday if it's a muscle injury or just a kick. We hope he'll be okay."
