Manchester City 5 – 0 Newcastle. Pep Guardiola’s side were surprisingly beaten at Southampton in their previous Premier League game but two goals in the opening 20 minutes against the Magpies effectively settled this contest.
Manchester City returned to winning ways in style by thrashing hapless Newcastle at Etihad Stadium. Gabriel Jesus ended his nine-game goal drought by converting from David Silva’s cutback, while Riyad Mahrez swept home the second from Kevin de Bruyne’s pass.
It got worse for Newcastle in the second period when Federico Fernandez inadvertently deflected Matt Ritchie’s attempted clearance into his own net and David Silva added the fourth by curling in a sublime free-kick.
Raheem Sterling came off the bench to add the fifth for City in injury-time, rolling in from Silva’s pass. With four games remaining, City have strengthened their claim to second place, moving nine points clear of Chelsea, while Newcastle drop to 13th.
City slickers
Manchester City’s unsatisfactory title defence has seen them drop 33 points this season, three more than in their previous two campaigns combined, but they were a class apart against Newcastle.
The swift movement and quick passing in the final third tore apart the Magpies backline with ease time and time again and though their aggregate score from their last five home games now reads 19-0, it could have been much more.
Phil Foden’s growing influence in the starting line-up is clear to see, buzzing around in the final third, but the young Englishman will be disappointed by missing a hat-trick of chances, all dragged wide from promising positions.
The man Foden is tipped to replace next season, David Silva, showed why he will depart as one of the finest players the Premier League has seen, completing 106 of his 112 passes, contributing two assists as well as scoring a glorious free-kick.
The first two goals were similar, both coming from the left of the box, with Belgium international De Bruyne taking his assist tally to 18 for the campaign, just two short of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry’s record.
Meagre Magpies
Newcastle’s form since the restart has been excellent with two victories and two draws, but this heavy defeat ended a run of six unbeaten games in the league.
The appointment of Steve Bruce to replace Rafael Benitez last summer was not universally well-received by the club’s fans, but the 59-year-old has kept them away from the relegation zone and they are only two points short of matching last season’s tally.
But Bruce extended his wretched record as manager against City. He has never beaten them, losing nine out of 12 matches.
They had several first-choice players missing, including Allan Saint-Maximin, Miguel Almiron and Jamaal Lascelles, and conceding two early goals did not help their cause.
Defender Fernandez, who saw Ritchie’s attempted clearance ricochet off him into his own net, recorded the away side’s only shot on target, a weak header which was easily gathered by Ederson.
Man of the match – David Silva (Man City)
What next?
Manchester City travel to Brighton on Saturday (kick-off 20:00 BST), while Newcastle go to Watford earlier on the same day (12:30).
Jesus the lucky charm – the stats
- Manchester City have won 11 consecutive top-flight home games against a single opponent for the very first time in the club’s history.
- Newcastle boss Steve Bruce has failed to win any of his 23 Premier League away games in Manchester (D4 L19), with this his ninth such defeat against City (10 v United).
- Thanks to Riyad Mahrez’s strike, Manchester City are the first English top-flight side to have five different players score at least 10 league goals in a single season since Everton in 1984-85 (Sterling, De Bruyne, Aguero, Jesus, Mahrez).
- Having also suffered a 5-0 defeat at Leicester earlier in the season, Newcastle have lost by at least five goals on more than one occasion in the same Premier League season for the very first time.
- Manchester City completed 787 of their 840 passes this evening against Newcastle, recording a pass completion rate of 93.7% – the highest passing accuracy we have on record in the Premier League since 2003-04.
- Kevin De Bruyne has assisted 18 Premier League goals this season for Manchester City, the most by any player in a season in the division since the Belgian himself also set up 18 in 2016-17.
- David Silva has now reached 10+ assists in all competitions in all 10 of his seasons with Manchester City, with his second in this game his 121st in total for the club.
- Manchester City have now won 30 of the 31 Premier League matches when Gabriel Jesus has scored, drawing the other.
Source – BBC News
In other news – Ronald Pfumbidzai: I’m trying my best
Ronald Pfumbidzai: I’m trying my best. Bloemfontein Celtic defender Ronald Pfumbidzai says he still has a long way to go for his injury to heal. The defender had an operation for a sports hernia early this year. Speaking to H-Metro he said. “It’s a process, l’m still out for a long time. “Injuries like these takes time to heal.
“I’ve started training but l’m not 100 percent fit,” he said. “Under these circumstances, you need to have proper training facilities but because of Covid-19, one can’t really have access to that. “But l’m getting there because l have people who are…continue reading.
