Manchester City run riot against Newcastle with Edin Dzeko rampant
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Version 0 of 1. Manchester City will notice a difference in quality once their next opponents arrive at the Etihad, though that consideration apart the preparations for Tuesday’s crunch game against Barcelona could not have gone more swimmingly. Not only were City able to cut Chelsea’s lead to five points at the top of the Premier League, they boosted their confidence and goal difference with an easy home win while Barcelona were being beaten at Camp Nou by Manuel Pellegrini’s old team, Málaga. Add the fact that Edin Dzeko not only scored his first goal for six months but looked thoroughly rejuvenated as the leader of the attacking line and City could hardly have asked for anything more. This game was supposed to be about Wilfried Bony but now there must be some doubt over whether the £25m striker will be an automatic selection against Barcelona after all. City began with Bony on the bench, resisting the temptation to give their January signing an instant debut after the long wait for the Africa Cup of Nations to be over. Many had assumed he would go straight into the team, though having already upset Stevan Jovetic by registering Bony for Europe Pellegrini was probably wary of sending the wrong signal to Dzeko. The Bosnian has not scored for City since September but he was named up front with Sergio Agüero as City attempted to capitalise on Chelsea’s home draw against Burnley. “We were only thinking about Newcastle, not Barcelona,” Dzeko said. “We heard the Chelsea result just before kick-off so we knew we had a job to do and we did it well.” Related: Chelsea 1-1 Burnley | Premier League match report The strike partnership was in business as soon as the first minute thanks to some early-stage doziness from Vurnon Anita. The game was 29 seconds old when the midfielder miscontrolled on the edge of his own area to allow Dzeko to steal in, then trundled into the City player in a clumsy attempt to rectify his mistake. Dzeko went down, Chris Foy pointed to the spot, a reasonable decision even though there had been little clear intent, and Agüero beat Tim Krul from the spot. That was simply good fortune, though when Dzeko helped create a second 11 minutes later it began to look like Pellegrini had made a great decision. Taking a pass from David Silva who wanted a return, Dzeko held up the ball in the area and found the better-placed Samir Nasri instead. He took a clever first touch to create a shooting opportunity before rifling past the helpless Krul. Nasri, like Dzeko, was playing inspired football at times, proving that when you pay £25m for a new player you do not necessarily need him on the pitch to see a return. If City have upped their game since Bony’s arrival, Pellegrini can still claim that as a legitimate part of his overall management strategy. For his next trick Dzeko popped up on the right wing, crossing from near the corner flag for Pablo Zabaleta to dummy and allow Agüero to shoot narrowly wide. It was an enterprising start from City with Newcastle putting little together in response apart from a sweetly struck shot from Daryl Janmaat that briefly had Joe Hart worried. If Bony was not worried at that stage, he might have begun to wonder about his future role when Dzeko added a third goal in emphatic manner midway through the first half. Reading Silva’s diagonal ball forward much better than Fabricio Coloccini, Dzeko stole in behind the defender, expertly controlled the high ball on his chest and gave Krul no chance with a left-foot half-volley. Related: Swansea City 2-1 Manchester United | Premier League match report The Newcastle fans had only just completed their 18th-minute applause for Jonás Gutiérrez and they were three goals down. “There’s only one Alan Pardew,” was the muted response. “We owe our fantastic supporters an apology,” John Carver said. “When you concede a penalty straight from the kick-off it’s really annoying. We were beaten by a better side but still we weren’t good enough. It wasn’t a good day but it’s how we deal with it that matters.” Newcastle opened the second half with a wonderful piece of skill to give their supporters some encouragement, Papiss Cissé bringing a notable reaction save from Hart with a left-foot volley after being skilfully picked out by Moussa Sissoko’s cross from the right. Sadly for the Toon Army that was as good as it got, only spurring City to add two more goals in the space of a couple of minutes. Both were scored by Silva and owed a lot to Agüero who created the first with a crossfield sprint from halfway to set up Nasri, whose unselfish pass allowed Silva to stroke home from close to the penalty spot. More ball-watching by Newcastle defenders, Janmaat in particular, then allowed Agüero to be first to reach Yaya Touré’s hopeful prod forward, chesting the ball into Silva’s path for another crisp finish from the edge of the area. Bony was introduced shortly after that, replacing Agüero rather than Dzeko with the match clearly won. Somewhat anticlimactically he did not do a great deal, shooting against Krul with his only real chance, but that should not take anything away from the home side’s overall performance. Newcastle were poor, it is true, and a rout such as this does not make City favourites against Barcelona, but it cannot do any harm. The visiting Spanish journalists must have been impressed, put it that way. If all the English reporters out at Camp Nou had been presented with a similar scoreline to write home about, City would never have heard the last of it. “This was an even better win than our last one at Stoke,” Pellegrini said, keeping his focus on the league and his feet on the ground. “Last season when we came from behind we always had games in hand. This season the title is going to be about which team drops most points in the run-in.” |