WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, JOSE!
Five-star City cut gap at top and send out message to Mourinho and Chelsea
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 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 from that, though. This had the feeling of a team moving through the gears ahead of greater challenges. The English champions won this game with something in reserve.
A penalty in the first 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 exquisite goals before half-time and two David Silva goals in the second half had Newcastle praying for full-time with more than half an hour left.
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 12 games at exactly the wrong time.
Having lost their two previous league games at the Etihad Stadium 4-0 and not having won 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 30 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 Dzeko, his second toppled the Bosnian forward.
Replays showed the contact between the players was minimal but there was some nevertheless and Aguero stepped forward to side foot the penalty past Tim Krul.
Newcastle briefly threatened to respond as Daryl Janmaat’s shot flew inches wide of Joe Hart’s post but it turned out to be an isolated foray forward. In the 13th minute, Pellegrini’s team scored again — and it was a super one to watch. Dzeko crossed low from the left towards Aguero but, when the ball was deflected into Nasri’s path, the French international beat one Newcastle defender with a perfect first touch, another with a drop of the shoulder, then side-footed the ball high to Krul’s right.
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 an opportunity. A dummy from Pablo Zabaleta allowed Aguero to screw a shot across goal and wide, while Dzeko 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 for it to drop before half-volleying it into the net.
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. Not that any of that really mattered for long. Within eight minutes of the second half, City had scored 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 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 it then found Silva, there was only going to be one outcome.
There was a similar sense of inevitability soon after. 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. Wilfried Bony made his entrance too but he was denied a debut goal in the 76th minute by the legs of Krul.