Manchester: Goals from Carlos Tevez, David Silva, Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure secured a comfortable 4-0 win for Roberto Mancini's men over struggling Newcastle United.
With Roberto Mancini's team playing for the last hour with the kind of flourish that has usually evaded them during their title challenge, Yaya Toure capitalised by smashing in the fourth.
As the first semblance of spring loosened winter's icy grip on March, City have the warm feeling of a comprehensive victory that lifts them to 62 points and five clear of third-placed Tottenham.
At lunchtime, Manchester United had maintained their iron grip on the title race by winning at Sunderland to extend their league lead to a remarkable 18 points.
Mancini has long accepted that the main fight is for the minor places, but at least the Italian had the satisfaction of City narrowing the gap back to 15 with one of their more convincing displays of the season.
By contrast, Newcastle are left looking uncomfortably over their shoulders as they risk getting sucked into the drop zone. Wigan's victory over Norwich mean Alan Pardew's team are now only three points clear of 18th place.
Earlier, City welcomed skipper Kompany back into the team after two months and eight matches on the sidelines. He was partnered in central defence by Joleon Lescott as Mancini made five changes from the team that lost to Everton on 16 March, with Yaya Toure, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri also returning to the starting X1.
Comments
0 comment