Today we saw Manchester City take on Newcastle United in their first match of the Barclays Premier League 2014-15 season. As champions of last year’s Premier League, City came in focused to win the first game of the season, secure 3 points and show the League that they are here to win it again.
City was handed a difficult start to the season facing Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in three of their next four games, just like Manchester United was giving last season. But with this hard schedule, nothing will stop Manchester City from taking all 9 points to add to the table and remain in first place.
They came into today’s game ready to play with David Silva and Sergio Aguero being the strikers of today’s game and each got a goal into Tim Krul’s net. Coach Manuel Pellegrini made sure that his men would hit the ground running at St James’ Park and they did thanks to an impressive display, highlighted by some wonderful attacking play.
The champions of the Premier League played well since the beginning of the first half with Edin Dzeko having a chance with a poked volley being kept out by Krul followed by a lovely chip by Stevan Jovetic. Seeing that their team was attacking, Pellegrini made sure to yell out tactics to help his team score. This brought up a half-volley strike from Samir Nasri but Krul was able to keep the ball out but left his hands stringing a bit.
Newcastle’s new signing Remy Cabella had a chance to score for his team, but chipped the ball just above the crossbar. That is when David Silva was able to kick the ball into the net and give Manchester City the 1-0 lead just before the end of the first half. The ball coming from mid air was found by Edin Dzeko who gave a back-heel pass to David Silva and was able to use his left foot to shot the ball from the left side of the box to the centre of the goal.
Manchester City was able to go into the locker room with a comfortable 1-0 lead but they knew they had to defend and score another goal or two to keep the lead and take the three points.
Newcastle came in strong in the second half, with Gouffran, Dummett and Coloccini all having a superb chance to score but Joe Hart was able to save his team from losing the game.
Yaya Toure had a chance to make it a 2-0 lead with just 27 minutes left as a free kick narrowly missed the target late on. Newcastle also had a chance before the end of the second half as Moussa Sissoko blazed over from just outside the area. City, though, made them pay, with Aguero, who has a substitute for Edin Dzeko, was able to score in the 92nd minute and take a late 2-0 victory over Newcastle United.
Sergio Aguero received a pass from one of his teammates and as he took on the captain, Fabricio Coloccini, he was able to kick the ball from a difficult angle to try to get the ball in, but Krul blocked it, which then Aguero was able to recover the ball and get the ball in from the left side of the box to the ride side of the net.
Manuel Pellegrini had a lot to say about his team and these are some words he said at the press, “It’s always important to start the season winning, especially at a place like St James’ Park. It was so important for me to have the attitude from the players right from the beginning to the end of the game.”
“We’re not thinking about the start of the season. We were just thinking about Newcastle. Now we can think about Liverpool. All of the teams have to play against all of the other teams home and away. We started with a win and now we can see if we can win the second one.”
Manchester City was able to gain the first three points of the season and they forward to doing the same with Liverpool who they will face next week at Etihad Stadium.
Photo by: Getty Images
