Manchester City fullback Pablo Zabaleta was delighted with victory over Crystal Palace.

David Silva opened the scoring just after half-time, via a big deflection, before netting a second on the hour mark before Yaya Toure wrapped up the points at the Etihad.

And Zabaleta, whose unselfish pass allowed Silva to break the deadlock, said: "We knew it was a difficult game because we didn't have any strikers, but the team spirit is fantastic, that's what we need at the moment.

"If you look at the whole performance, it was fantastic. We kept patient to score the first goal, they were defending very deep, it was difficult to find the goal and at the end I think it was a different game."