With Gabriel Jesus missing through Covid-19, Sergio Aguero was only named on the bench as De Bruyne led the line on the night.
The decision paid off as the Belgian star bagged a goal and an assist as the Citizens cruised to a 3-1 win over the struggling Blues.
When asked about playing up front, he told Sky Sports; "Bit bizarre in the beginning, I've done it a few times in my career obviously we have a lot of forwards out and the coach asked me to do this job, so I tried my best to do it as good as possible.
"I think after five or 10 minutes we found our rhythm - the beginning was a bit lacking and I was in a bit of a different role today but after that we played very well.
"We took our chances at the right time and defensively were solid for 90 minutes. It's a shame we conceded that goal in the last minute.
"We have different players so we play different this year so we have adjusted to our personnel, but the team is finding more rhythm in the last month we are playing better.
"When we had chances today we took them and leading 3-0 at half-time meant we could play more realistic in the second half."
