Manchester City 4-0 Newcastle (Marmoush 19′, 24′, 33′, Mcatee 84′)
ETIHAD STADIUM — This was the first vision of a new, energised Manchester City but the same old Newcastle United at the Etihad.
Billed as a litmus test of City’s mettle after Real Madrid drove a horse and cart through their Champions League aspirations, it instead turned a harsh spotlight on Newcastle’s top-five ambitions.
The verdict was a chastening one for Eddie Howe and his players, who delivered their worst performance of the campaign at the worst possible time.
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Read MoreNewcastle were miles off it. The Etihad is a ground where their pretensions to challenge the elite often run aground but rarely has it looked quite as ugly as this. Passive from the off, a midfield that relies on intensity and energy was bullied and bypassed by a City engine room that was supposedly misfiring.
And they weren’t even the worst offenders – defensively Newcastle retreated so far they might have ended the afternoon sat in the god’s at the neighbouring Co-Op Arena.
Up front the gladiatorial battle between Erling Haaland and Alexander Isak never materialised because Newcastle weren’t able to work the ball to the isolated Swede. Anthony Gordon, so often a livewire, played as if he hadn’t quite shaken off the fitness concerns that had threatened his participation in the contest.
It leaves Howe and Newcastle in a difficult spot as they peer at a run of games that will define whether this season is one of the finest in the club’s modern history or yet another false dawn.
Last time they reached the Carabao Cup final league form suffered as focus became fuzzed: if the same happens this time they can kiss goodbye to any hope of matching the 2023 achievement of qualifying for the Champions League.
Arguably that is what is more important for the long-term progress of a club that has been caged in by the Premier League’s financial regulations for over a year now. No spend in January was a requirement rather than a choice but when you witnessed the impact of City’s new boys, the dangers of their conservative recruitment outlook are reinforced in uncertain terms.
For Pep Guardiola’s side, the infusion of new blood in January was not just a luxury but a necessity. And in Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and the sublime Omar Marmoush they appear to have made wise investments.
Not enough, surely, to rescue a Champions League play-off that ran away from them in midweek but probably sufficient to keep challengers like Newcastle and Nottingham Forest at bay in the race to retain their seat at Europe’s top table.
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Read MoreMarmoush was simply superb and, just as City hoped, he has made an instant impact in a team that was crying out for someone to provide threat between the lines and a goalscorer’s instinct in the final third.
His opener – courtesy of Ederson’s raking kick down the middle that Kieran Trippier badly misjudged – was a wonderful chip over Martin Dubraka that set the tone for an afternoon when so little went right for the visitors.
The brace that completed his treble was more about the bright work of Savinho, who has shone in difficult times for the champions. Even allowing for City’s propensity to self destruct this season, it was effectively game over by half-time.
Barring a nightmare debut Khusanov has looked good too and his pace enabled City to protect themselves against the sort of collapses that have dogged them recently.
There’s an irony that Newcastle felt they had manoeuvred themselves into pole position for the former Lens defender ahead of the January transfer window, only for financial restrictions to rule them out of the running as City closed in.
As the Magpies’ defence creaked and conceded here, it was difficult to escape the conclusion that Newcastle’s inaction in the New Year might prove costly in the race to return to the Champions League.
The theory was that no European football might help Newcastle this season. But it is Howe’s men who are condemned to a week of soul-searching after a limp defeat that leaves their league campaign at a crossroads. This was their third Premier League loss in the last four: whichever way you spin it, that is simply not good enough.
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