Omar Marmoush’s rapid Manchester City hat-trick demolishes Newcastle

Omar Marmoush arrived in the winter window as a 20-goal forward for Eintracht Frankfurt and against Newcastle emphatically showed why, via a scintillating 14-minute first-half hat-trick that tore the opposition apart. For the Egyptian and Manchester City, joy; for the visitors, despair, as they were sent home reeling, on the back of a 16th consecutive Premier League reverse here. At the break, a home fan suggested it was “the best first 45 minutes I’ve seen all season”: he was not far wrong, because when City are performing like this you see how Pep Guardiola might revive his embattled champions.

With a quarter of an hour left, Marmoush had his moment, as the manager removed him and the jubilant home congregation gave him a richly deserved ovation. This was a City display more akin than of late to that of a “machine”, as Guardiola has called them in recent years, and his afternoon ended in a mood counter to the irritated one it began with. The Catalan loves berating a player and in record time – before two minutes were gone – John Stones was twice the target for going back not forward. This was followed by a sarcastic clap of Andrew Madley and a chat with the fourth official, Tim Robinson, about why, precisely, the referee penalised Abdukodir Khusanov for felling Anthony Gordon.

From this juncture, the manager’s spirits rose. There was approval of an Erling Haaland stampede along the left that zig-zagged him into Newcastle’s area and required a sliding Dan Burn tackle to stop a shot. Here was an illustration how defence, not attack, has been City’s prevailing problem. Another came when Stones, at halfway, fed Savinho and the winger swooped in, and Eddie Howe’s men had to scramble to defend.

Newcastle could not cut off City’s attacking pipeline and soon Marmoush had his first shot, unloading after darting down his left flank. The next time the Egyptian took aim, he scored. It was a product of a beautiful route-one move: Ederson advanced out of his area and flipped a sweetly executed low 50-yard pass; Kieran Trippier, tracking the Egyptian’s left-right diagonal, leaped but missed the ball, and as Martin Dubravka rushed out of his goal, Marmoush’s chip bounced once and kissed the open net. Ederson’s assist was a sixth – the most for a goalkeeper in the competition.

Marmoush’s second goal in City colours soon followed and was arguably even better than the first. As he and other teammates assembled on the fringe of Newcastle’s area, Ilkay Gündogan tapped to Marmoush. His initial touch swapped the ball on to his right foot, again Trippier was left a patsy, and the finish, coming from an inside-left channel, defeated Dubravka on the tighter, near corner. For a phase Newcastle camped near Ederson’s goal and went close when a City mix-up allowed Alexander Isak to run in and shoot, Stones’s intervention doing enough to send the ball wobbling wide, to Ederson’s right.

Now, Marmoush’s outing rocketed further, and this was City at their simple, ruthless best: Phil Foden passed to Savinho, who glided beyond Lewis Hall and turned the ball into the area for City’s No 7 to steer home calmly. Howe’s response to his team’s routing was to remove the anonymous Joe Willock for Lewis Miley and the shell-shocked Trippier for Tino Livramento. Sign up to Football Daily. Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football.

after newsletter promotion. Mid-game, City’s X account posted a picture of Marmoush with the caption “The Pharaoh of Manchester”; he did indeed rule but when chasing and chopping down Miley he showed less regal tasks were his too. For Newcastle, Livramento’s output immediately dwarfed Trippier’s as he skipped through a right corridor and fed Jacob Murphy; City were turned but the winger’s cross was put out by Stones.

The corner proved a dud but there was hope, perhaps, that Newcastle could do what Feyenoord did here and claw back a 3-0 deficit in the second half. But this soon faded as City kept their foot on the foe’s jugular. Haaland hunted Burn down as he meandered across his goal and the No 9 set Savinho up. Then, Josko Gvardiol’s class took him on a buccaneering run along the left and left Guardiola imploring the faithful to join in with his claps.