MAN CITY 4, NEWCASTLE 0.
Manchester City inflicted a painful defeat on hapless Newcastle as Manuel Pellegrini made a dream start to his managerial career in his first Barclays Premier League fixture.
Goals from David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and substitute Samir Nasri were no more than City deserved as they outclassed Alan Pardew’s side which had to play over half the match with 10 men.
It was not so much the victory, but the manner of the performance as it was achieved with style and a flamboyance which was seldom seen during Roberto Mancini’s final season in charge.
The pace in the City side was frightening as was the way they applied a stranglehold from start to finish with Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko clearly revitalised under Chilean Pellegrini.
And but for the brilliance of Dutch keeper Tim Krul, City would have triumphed by a far wider margin.
It was a satisfying night for Pellegrini who said: “The most pleasing thing was the way we played for 90 minutes.
“It was a very good start and I was confident the team would play well as we had worked very hard pre-season on another style of football.
“We must keep improving, but we did pretty well. My expectation was to win and to play well so I am happy with my first game in the Premier League which was also special for me.”
City made an explosive start and had chances to move ahead before they broke the deadlock in only the sixth minute.
Aguero had a goalbound shot blocked by Moussa Sissoko and Dzeko forced a fabulous fingertip save from Krul.
And it was no surprise when they made the breakthrough when Dzeko cut the ball back from the byline and, with the aid of a deflection, the ball looped up for Silva to head home from seven yards.
City doubled their lead midway through the half following another glorious move as Vincent Kompany broke forward out of defence and supplied a delightful through ball which Dzeko flicked into the path of Aguero who raced clear before rolling the ball low past Krul.
Joe Hart was called into action for the first time on the stroke of half time diving smartly low to his right to keep out a long-range drive from Cheik Tiote in a half City dominated from start to finish.
Newcastle’s night got even worse when they were reduced to 10 men in stoppage time when Steven Taylor was dismissed for elbowing Aguero.
Krul pulled off a wonder save to keep out a header from Dzeko, but it was merely delaying the inevitable as City soon added a third goal.
Aguero was fouled just outside the box and Yaya Toure curled a majestic free kick over the defensive wall into the top corner of the net.
Krul was preventing it become a landslide victory and embarrassing defeat for the Toon Army as he pulled off another amazing save to keep out a goalbound shot from Dzeko.
Newcastle’s defence was sliced open by a Pabloa Zabaleta pass with 15 minutes left enabling Nasri to burst clear and pick his spot low past Krul.
Substitute Alvaro Negredo was denied a debut goal late on by the referee’s assistant who flagged for offside as he fired home from a Silva corner.
The only dampener for City was an injury to captain Kompany who limped off with 20 minutes left with what appeared a groin strain.