Playing on a Monday night is barely ever an advantage, in most cases it does more harm than good as your rivals will have already played their games and quite possibly got the job done therefore there’s more pressure on you, especially given the way the top contenders played this weekend. Couple that with the fact that there’s a new man in charge at the Etihad and therefore a good start is ever the more important, one wouldn’t blame Manchester City for feeling the pressure tonight against Newcastle. Newcastle and City’s summer couldn’t have gone more differently from a stability perspective as City spent like crazy and haven’t put to bed the prospect of spending more whereas Newcastle haven’t changed a great deal and are currently being linked with shipping out their best performers (Yohan Cabaye was left out of the squad tonight amidst interest from Arsenal).
All of this added up to the fact that no one really knew what to expect from tonight’s clash; would City’s stars gel, or would this Newcastle unit be able to frustrate Pellegrini’s title challengers? Edin Dzeko got a vote of confidence of sorts as he got the nod to start alongside Sergio Aguero in the City attack as opposed to new signings, Negredo and Jovetic, whereas Jesus Navas and Fernandinho got the nod for their debuts.
Manchester City took no time at all to kick into top gear as they had their first real opportunity two minutes into the game as Aguero and Dzeko made nuisances of themselves and caused real problems; Dzeko would have scored after three minutes thanks to a slick move from Pablo Zabaleta had it not been for Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul spreading himself well to make the fingertip save. City’s intensity paid off after just six minutes though as David Silva started and finished a slick, but somewhat lucky goal-scoring move for the home side with a powerful header; Dzeko was involved again though in what would be a great all-round performance for the Bosnian international. Gouffran did have the ball in the City net on the ten minute mark in what was a rare adventure for Newcastle into the Manchester City half but it was ruled out for offside. City could have been two up had they had a penalty decision go there way but that wasn’t the case but they had so much control over the game that it didn’t really matter. Aguero doubled City’s lead with a lightning fast counter attacking move as he was fed through by a Dzeko flick to drive a low shot past Tim Krul into the far corner; Newcastle at this point seemed dead and buried. City’s dominance continued up to half-time and things got drastically worse for Newcastle as their biggest attacking threat, Jonas Gutierrez was withdrawn with a suspected hamstring injury and Steven Taylor was sent off for an incident with Sergio Aguero; in summary of Newcastle’s first half, Joey Barton said it right – it was the worst possible opening half to the season that anyone could ever experience.
The second half didn’t get any better for them either as, within five minutes of the restart, Newcastle fell further behind. Yaya Toure marked his 100th Premier League appearance with a goal thanks to beautiful free-kick from just over 25 yards out to add further insult to injury for Alan Pardew’s men. The only blemish on an otherwise textbook performance by City was the injury and subsequent substitution of captain, Vincent Kompany, who tweaked his groin in a challenge on Shola Ameobi – City are yet to release a statement regarding the injury but he walked off without help so it shouldn’t be too long a lay off. Samir Nasri soon lifted spirits again at the Etihad though as he was fed through to score City’s fourth on the night and take them top of the league on goal difference. Alvaro Negredo came on and had the ball in the back of the net close to full time but that effort was ruled out for offside but it mattered little as City had the job done long before that.
It was a pretty superb performance by Manchester City in truth but Newcastle played their part as well as they made it so easy for the former league champions with their lack of tactical nous, reckless decision making and, at times, just plain laziness. City’s confidence will be sky high now whereas Newcastle will need to come up with some new ideas before next weekend’s round of fixtures.
Final score then guys was Manchester City 4 – 0 Newcastle United!