Omar Marmoush truly announced his arrival in English football with a ruthless first-half hat-trick as Manchester City demolished Newcastle 4-0 and provided the perfect response after their painful Champions League defeat by Real Madrid.
The Egyptian forward had made a slow start since his £60m ($75m) move from Eintracht Frankfurt in January but it was worth the wait as he bagged a hat-trick in the space of 14 minutes in the first half, leaving Eddie Howe's top-four pretenders with no answer.
The game was a shootout for the top four after Chelsea's heavy defeat at Brighton and Marmoush packed a sub-machine gun for the occasion. Newcastle had made a decent start but City opened the visitors up with route-one football, Ederson bypassing midfield with a launched ball downfield before Marmoush let the ball bounce in his favour and lobbed Martin Dubravka expertly. It was his first goal in his fifth appearance for City but he had his second just five minutes later.
Savinho swept a pass to Ilkay Gundogan who had space and time to thread the ball between two defenders into the path of the Egyptian, who controlled with his left foot before stroking into the bottom corner. The excellent Savinho then made the third goal, burning Lewis Hall for pace down the right flank and squaring for Marmoush to slot home with one touch and complete the first hat-trick of his career.
City coasted for much of the second half without ever looking vulnerable and substitute James McAtee rounded off the confidence-boosting win by grabbing a fourth in the 84th minute.
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