Easy to forget that it used to be like this every week. Whether it’s for one afternoon only or not, back to the good old days for Manchester City.

The dads and lads XI played at pace. Although populated by Almeira and Athletic Bilbao shirts and travel parties, the Etihad Stadium had an energy. It felt new, fresh but of course it isn’t – this is what City had been for so long before an unfathomable downturn that leaves them scrapping for fifth.

Beating Crystal Palace in this fashion meant something and Pep Guardiola, who has come in for mounting criticism in recent weeks, will possess some sense of vindication.

Guardiola had claimed optimism that City will be in next year’s Champions League after observing something in recent weeks that nobody else had. He sat in his chair just over the road from here on Friday afternoon and insisted that ‘spirit’ had returned within his group.

He opted against elaborating on the point yet it was obvious what he was driving at. Even allowing for a chronic injury list, City just haven’t fought for results like this often enough throughout the season.

They were dragged back into this by an inspired Kevin De Bruyne – whose emotional wave to the crowd when substituted suggested he knew that this could be his final weekend home match in blue – and made sure to keep pummelling even when the victory was sealed.

That seems like an alien concept here these days and completed without natural wingers – Guardiola’s selections criticised by the fans too - and a pair of academy products scoring. A productive display given how it started, Palace two clear owing to deplorable defending.

‘We’ve not been good,’ Guardiola said. ‘We didn't find the spark to lift the players for many months but you cannot win all the time and with the season we have done other teams would be 10th or 12th, I promise you. It’s not perfect but it's in our hands.’

The Palace double: avoidable. An Eberechi Eze tap in and Chris Richards bundling in underneath the crossbar from a routine Adam Wharton corner. They came 13 minutes apart, Eze’s after just eight minutes, and left City looking at requiring snookers in the skirmish for Champions League qualification.

Guardiola claimed offside and City watched as Ismaila Sarr slid for Eze. Statues from Wharton’s corner, too. Jean-Philippe Mateta stood vaguely in Ederson’s orbit, confusing the goalkeeper who punched thin air as Ruben Dias lost the flight and fight for Richards to extend the lead.

None of this came as any great surprise, Palace showing why they are the division’s form team outside of Liverpool.

The surprise was what came next. City had gone close through Omar Marmoush and Kevin De Bruyne – one thwarted by Dean Henderson, the other a post – but the sustained pressure thereafter can now define their run-in. Eze thought he’d pushed Palace three clear by bending into Ederson’s far corner, only to be adjudged to have strayed on a busy afternoon for the debuting semi-automated offside system, and momentum shifted.

De Bruyne, gnarling and gnarly, took matters into his own hands. A reminder that he can still impact days like these; a reminder of what City need to replace this summer. Palace left a gap to the right of their wall at a free-kick 25 yards out and Henderson thought he’d covered the angles. He hadn’t.

The Etihad felt truly alive for the first time in a long time. James McAtee, on his first Premier League start, glanced wide Marmoush’s centre and the Egyptian soon rattled in his sixth league goal three minutes after De Bruyne’s free kick.

It’s very difficult to keep McAtee out of games and he hustled to the byline, clipping towards the back post where De Bruyne nodded backwards. Marmoush stormed onto the bouncing ball.

Within 11 minutes of the second half, the catastrophe of early on had been forgotten. Nico O’Reilly shook off defensive jitters and started marauding forward, cutting back for Mateo Kovacic – via De Bruyne – and the Croatian fell into his shot angling into Henderson’s right-hand corner.

McAtee ought to have scored again and had his rewards soon after, with Ederson’s long ball catching Palace out. McAtee nipped around Henderson, placed home, embarking on a trademark celebratory flip those in the academy had seen countless times. Later forced off through injury, Ederson’s fourth assist of the season is a top-flight record career seventh for a goalkeeper.

Oliver Glasner, who bemoaned defensive mistakes and his own decision-making, is insistent that Palace will have City’s number should they meet in the FA Cup final. ‘I said to Pep afterwards, you can’t play in his system because we will solve it,’ he warned.

Not here though. McAtee was again involved in the fifth, standing up a cross that made its way to O’Reilly on the edge. The volley with his instep was sublime, a first league goal. Controlled, assured. A bit like City. It’s not often you say that.