THE VERDICT: CITY 3 NEWCASTLE 1
CITY have become the vampires of the Premier League.
They suck the life force out of you until there is nothing left but a desiccated husk … which collapses into dust.
Sergio Aguero was the killer, his hattrick making it 14 goals in 12 games against the Toon. They must really have upset him at some point.
For anyone other than City fans, who could enjoy their team’s utter dominance of Newcastle after all those years of being on the back foot, it is pretty dull.
But the Blues re-opened the 12-point gap at the top of the Premier League with an accomplished victory against unambitious opposition.
It is not a great spectacle. It is football reduced to an academic exercise of attack versus defence, the old question of what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object – except this object becomes less immovable as their energy is sapped away.
The Blues are used to it. When a visiting team stretches five across the back as the Toon did, it is all about patience, and trusting in your own excellence and the opposition’s inevitable flagging. So it was in this. Last week at Anfield there were those who hoped that Liverpool might have done a Van Helsing and exposed City’s immortality by driving a stake through their heart.
All they did was waft a crucifix and a clove of garlic in their general direction, and this week City were back from the undead, like a latter-day Christopher Lee, draining Newcastle of their energy.
It is no surprise that City tend to score in the closing stages of each half, when they have successfully drained the life out of the opposing team.
This time it took until the 34th minute, although Raheem Sterling had almost struck earlier, his strike from David Silva’s cross ruled to be marginally offside.
The breakthrough came from a familiar source as Kevin de Bruyne painted a rainbow of a cross and Aguero seemed to get the faintest of touches with his head to help it into the far corner.
That came in a first half in which City had 82 per cent possession, threatening their own record, set in that nerve-shredding, title-winning 3-2 win over QPR in 2012.
Rafa Benitez was not tempted to abandon his negative approach until City bagged their second. Aguero (34, 63 pen, 83) (67) 81% 21 18 Murphy 19% 6 0 None Paul Tierney 54,452 Clark
That came when Sterling burst past two challengers in the box and the despairing Javier Manquillo’s tackle caught him and not the ball.
Aguero continues his personal crusade against Newcastle from the spot.
The Toon hit back when Jacob Murphy ran in behind stand-in left-back Aleks Zinchenko – otherwise excellent – and chipped Ederson.
Suddenly we had a game, until Leroy Sane took a hand with a mazy stop-start run which tangled the defence before he teed-up Aguero for his hattrick goal.