Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko scored first-half goals for City before David Silva scored a brace in three minutes to help the destruction of the Geordie side in a 5-0 rout of the side at the Ethiad Stadium to give the defending Premier League champions their biggest win so far this season. As a result, City have closed the gap at the top of the Premier League table to just five points; following Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Burnley earlier on this afternoon.

It took a matter of seconds for the home side to take the lead. After 30 seconds, an awful back pass from centre-back Mike Williamson put Vurnon Anita in a bad position, and the Dutch midfielder took down Dzeko in the box. The referee had no choice but to point to the penalty spot, with Anita having no complaints as he clearly fouled the Bosnian inside the box. Aguero then took the resulting penalty, and made no mistake to calmly slot his shot into the back of the net to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

In the 10th minute, Daryl Janmaat forced Joe Hart into making an acrobatic dive towards his far right post, for a teasing 25 yard effort which swerved wide of the mark - giving the English goalkeeper something to think about in the process. Just two minutes later, Samir Nasri doubled the scoring for the defending Premier League champions. Dzeko's inviting cross found the French midfielder, who was able to skip past full-back Massadio Haidara with his first touch before turning captain Fabricio Coloccini with a fake shot and beating Tim Krul with a neat finish into the net.

The match was all but over as a contest soon enough, as Silva's sublime through ball across to Dzeko allowed the Bosnian forward to control inside the area before slotting his effort beyond Krul goalwards; ending Dzeko's rather surprising 15-match goal drought and making the score 3-0 after just 21 minutes on the clock.

In the second-half, Manchester City took complete control of the match and played at their own tempo. After 51 minutes, Aguero drove forward with the ball from the left-hand side of the pitch, before unselfishly passing to Nasri, who weaved past his marker to feed Silva with a golden chance to make it 4-0. Silva did so in style, but the home supporters had virtually just stopped celebrating by the time Silva scored again. A lofted ball towards Aguero from Touré was chested down into the Spanish magician's path, and given his goal-scoring form of late, he could only guide the powerful effort past the Dutch 'keeper into the back of the net.

Silva and Aguero were substituted off after 60 odd minutes, in a smart decision by manager Manuel Pellegrini - who had one eye on their next fixture, a Last 16 first leg, UEFA Champions League match at home against La Liga giants Barcelona on Tuesday. Wilfried Bony came off the substitutes' bench to a hero's welcome from his new supporters following his £28million pound move from Swansea back in January, and was unlucky to have been denied a debut goal thanks to an outstretched leg of Krul.

The Citzens were able to ease themselves to the final whistle at The Ethiad, where the match was the ideal preparation for Barcelona in midweek - ironically, their opponents lost 1-0 against Malaga in La Liga earlier, so City will have the momentum going into that one.

Newcastle are currently in 11th place in the league, and will host Aston Villa next weekend; who under manager Tim Sherwood will be hopeful of a positive result.

Manchester City (5) Newcastle United (0)
Hart 7 Krul 5
Zabaleta 7 Janmaat 5
Kompany 7 Williamson 5
Mangala 7 Coloccini 6
Kolarov 8 Haidara 6
Nasri 8 ​Anita 4
Fernandinho 8 Colback 5
Touré 7 Gouffran 6
Silva MOTM 10 Sissoko 6.5
Dzeko 8 Perez 6
Aguero 8.5 Cisse 5
Substitutes:
Lampard 6 Obertan 6
Navas 6 Abeid 6
Bony 6 Taylor 5