A perfect day for Manchester City and a perfect way to prepare for the biggest night of their season so far.
Chelsea dropped points, Manchester United lost and Manuel Pellegrini’s team scored five in one of the most startlingly one-sided games of the Barclays Premier League season.
Newcastle were lamentable. That should not be overlooked. City, though, were terrific and they will now head in to Tuesday’s Champions League game at home to Barcelona imbued with confidence after scoring nine times in their last two league games.
City have been here before, of course. This time last year they prepared for a game against the Catalan club by beating Chelsea. Three days later they got a right old chasing.
This felt different to that, though. This game had the feeling of a team moving through the gears ahead of greater challenges to come. As odd as it sounds, the English champions won this game with something in reserve.
A penalty in the second minute from Sergio Aguero was certainly the perfect start for City. After that they found a way through what can generously be called the Newcastle defence with ease.
Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko contributed quite exquisite goals before half-time and two David Silva goals early in the second period had Newcastle hanging on for full-time with well over half an hour remaining.
In the Premier League, Chelsea’s advantage is now five points. In Spain, meanwhile, they will know that Barcelona have just lost for the first time in twelve games at exactly the wrong time.
Newcastle actually won here in the Capital One Cup at the end of October but their Premier League record in Manchester – and particular against City – is awful.
Having lost their two previous league games at the Etihad Stadium 4-0 and not having win at City since September 2000 this always had the look of a troublesome afternoon for John Carver and his players.
It never helps, of course, when you concede a penalty within 27 seconds.
Newcastle began the game trying to play the ball rather ambitiously out from the edge of their own penalty area and when Vurnon Anita’s first touch played him into trouble under pressure from Edin Dzeko, his second brought the Bosnian centre forward crashing to earth.
Replays showed the contact between the players to be minimal but there was some nevertheless. Aguero stepped forward to side foot the resulting penalty past Tim Krul with a certain amount of ease.
Motivated no doubt by news of Chelsea’s late implosion against Burnley and facing such compliant opposition, City looked set fair as soon as Aguero’s penalty found the net. Newcastle briefly threatened to respond as Daryl Janmaat’s long distance shot flew inches wide of Joe Hart’s right-hand post but it turned out to an isolated foray forward during a first half that City decorated with some lovely football.
In the 13th minute Pellegrini’s team scored again. A goal that pretty much sealed the result, it was a super one to watch, too. Dzeko, pleased no doubt to be selected ahead of new signing Wilfried Bony, crossed low from the left towards Aguero but when the ball was deflected in to Nasri’s path, the French international beat one Newcastle defender with a perfect first touch, another with a drop of the shoulder and then side-footed the ball high to Krul’s right with his left instep.
Ultimately, the actual finish proved to be the easy bit. So perfect had been Nasri’s control, composure and clarity of thinking that by the time he came to pick his spot the goal had become an inevitably.
So too, now, had become the result. Newcastle looked utterly lost. On the touchline Carver and assistant Steve Stone talked the problem through at length. When you are two down within quarter of an hour at the champions, however, there often isn’t an answer.
City – facing a goal difference as well as a points deficit behind Chelsea – sensed opportunity. A dummy from Pablo Zabaleta allowed Aguero to screw a shot across goal and wide while Dzeko – full of eager running – fizzed a shot from distance over the bar.
Dzeko soon got his goal, though, and once again it was fantastic to watch. Silva’s driven pass from deep dropped over Fabricio Coloccini’s head on to Dzeko’s chest 12 yards out and he waited before striking it home on the half-volley with his left instep.
City’s supporters have seen some terrific football since Arab money transformed their club in 2008 but this 45 minutes was up there with the best. There was still time for Dzeko to head wide from a corner before the interval while they could even have had a couple more penalties.</div>
Not that any of that really mattered for long. Within eight minutes of the second half starting, City had two more goals
Once again the football was great to watch but it was impossible to ignore Newcastle’s compliance. In the run up to Silva’s first goal in the 47th minute, Aguero was allowed to run diagonally from almost inside his own half to the edge of the penalty box without anyone making a tackle. When he laid the ball off to Nasri and the ball then found Silva, there was only going to be one outcome.
There was a similar sense of inevitability soon after, too. This time Yaya Toure’s diagonal pass found Aguero and when he controlled it Silva arrived to drive his second goal – his team’s fifth – across Krul from 18 yards.
With more than half an hour left, it seemed as though City would score as many as they wished. Bony made his entrance at this stage, too, and he was denied a debut goal in the 76th minute by the legs of the Newcastle goalkeeper.
Remarkably, there were to be no more goals. City can only hope they have saved some for Tuesday.
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