Newcastle were much improved too, but only briefly in the game. Since the home defeat to West Ham last month that gave Sam Allardyce so much inner satisfaction, the Magpies have lost six of their past seven league games, the only victory in a shocking run coming against 10-man Wigan.
"Newcastle played very well," Roberto Mancini conceded. "You always get a tough game here and we know they are always capable of coming back. That's why I could not understand us missing all those chances in the first half."
Alan Pardew was left with the hollow feeling that comes with playing well but earning nothing. "There were a lot of positives for us but zero points," the Newcastle manager said. "That's my big concern at the moment, because it puts us under pressure going into the next game. The match against QPR is a big game for us now.
City hit us with a 20-minute golden period in the first half, that's what they can do and we were hanging in a bit, but we bossed the second half and were back in the match for a while.
"We actually managed to create more chances than they did and that's something. I've been on bad runs before when you feel you can't score a goal, but we look like we have goals in us. If Papiss Cissé had taken that chance in the second half the place would have gone mad."
City dropped Mario Balotelli from the squad and survived a scare after 95 seconds when Joe Hart had to react quickly to keep out a clipped shot from Demba Ba that was heading for his bottom corner. If the home fans were hoping that was a sign of promising things to come they were quickly disappointed. The visitors swept into the lead on 10 minutes and could have had a couple more before the midpoint of the first half.
Samir Nasri, effectively called half a player by Mancini last week, was prominent in most of the City attacks and actually looked for the first time in months like the threat he used to be for Arsenal.
It was a splendid ball forward by Yaya Touré from half way that set up the opening goal, yet Nasri was onto it in a flash, just managing to stay onside, and had squared a pass to leave Sergio Agüero a tap-in before the Newcastle defence had properly woke up to the danger. Carlos Tevez forced a point-blank save from Tim Krul moments later from a David Silva pass, then narrowly failed to reach another square pass from Nasri that was begging to be touched in at the far post, before Nasri hit the post from a tight angle a couple of yards out when he should probably have supplied the second goal.
With Tevez missing another golden opportunity from a Nasri square pass before the half-hour it began to look as if City might regret not making their creativity count, especially as Nasri was forced off with a groin strain 10 minutes before the break. It did not work out that way, even with Tevez continuing to miss chances.
He managed more of a cross than a shot when Silva gave him a sight of goal in the 38th minute, but the ball touched David Santon on the way out and from the corner Javi García headed City into a comfortable lead.
The hapless Santon was on the line and in a position to deal with the downward header, yet made a hash of his attempted clearance and saw the ball bounce over the line off his standing leg. The half-time score was a fair reflection of the first half. City had bewildered their opponents with the speed and slickness of their first time passing and could have had more. Apart from Ba's early attempt, Newcastle managed only hopeful efforts from Mike Williamson and Papiss Cissé .
Real hope arrived early in the second half when Ba pulled a goal back with an opportunist strike, after Fabricio Coloccini returned a half-cleared corner to find the City central defence had deserted the danger area in front of Hart. Moments later the same thing happened again: neither Kolo Touré nor Matija Nastasic were in a position to close down Cissé when he received the ball from Vurnon Anita and turned to make space for a shot, but presented with a chance to alter the course of the game he fired early and over the bar.
At least the goal livened up the second half and encouraged Newcastle to play some of their best football, with Jonás Gutiérrez going closest to equalising with a shot from an impossibly narrow angle. For a while the outcome hung in the balance, even after Mancini sent on Edin Dzeko to add height to the attack, but Newcastle were undone when Silva and Pablo Zabaleta fashioned some space on the left, for a cross from the latter that was steered through a crowd of players by Yaya Touré at the near post. It was not defending of the highest quality, Newcastle appeared to be more worried about the ball reaching Dzeko or Agüero, though Touré timed his run well and his touch was decisive.
"We had to react after the loss to Manchester United last week," his brother Kolo said. "It is never easy to come here, Newcastle put a lot of pressure on us even when we were in front."
A POTENT PAIRING
Teaming Sergio Agüero and Carlos Tevez in attack provides City with a striking force more dynamic than playing Mario Balotelli as lone frontman. City have won every league game since the start of last season in which Tevez and Agüero have started. In the 21 Premier League games in which Agüero has scored this season, their record is a formidable W20 D1.
YAYA RULES MIDFIELD
Yaya Touré was the pulsing heartbeat of City at St James' Park, his defence-splitting diagonal pass to help set up their opener typical of his vision and ability and he scored City's vital third. How Mancini will miss him in January as the Ivorian heads for the Africa Cup of Nations and may miss up to five games.
TIGHTER AT BACK
After last week's derby defeat by Manchester United and being held 1-1 by Everton at the Emirates, City's defence are showing greater confidence without the injured Vincent Kompany. Despite being vulnerable to high balls, they stood firm after Demba Ba's goal fired up Newcastle's rally.
NASRI STILL THE FALL GUY
After the debacle at the wall for Robin van Persie's free-kick last Sunday, there were questions about the Frenchman's hunger for a fight. But the pain keeps coming for Samir Nasri, who was doubled over after taking one to the groin. Off he limped.
Source: TheGuardian
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