Manuel Pellegrini delighted by Manchester City's dominant start
Manchester City's Abu Dhabi-based owners want Pellegrini to copy Barcelona's blueprint of winning with flair and the former Malaga coach took heart from the way his new players implemented his passing philosophy during the first Premier League match of his Eastlands reign.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: August 20, 2013 07:22 AM IST
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini admitted he was delighted to see his side mark his first match in charge with a stylish 4-0 victory over 10-man Newcastle on Monday.
City's Abu Dhabi-based owners want Pellegrini to copy Barcelona's blueprint of winning with flair and the former Malaga coach took heart from the way his new players implemented his passing philosophy during the first Premier League match of his Eastlands reign.
Goals from David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri destroyed Newcastle, who had Steven Taylor sent off just before half-time.
"For me the most important thing was the way we played," Pellegrini said. "We tried to play good football for 90 minutes. We scored four goals and we had at least six or seven chances.
"The players enjoyed the way we played, we played as an aggressive team without the ball and that's important if we want to be an offensive team.
"All of the players really worked really hard in both things."
Pellegrini enjoyed every minute of his first Premier League debut, but the Chilean insisted he wouldn't be happy unless his team built on there impressive start.
"It is my first official experience of the Premier League, although I played a lot of times against English teams like Manchester United and Arsenal in the past," he said.
"I'm very happy to be here and I really enjoyed it; the match, the people, the fans.
"It's a very good start and we must continue this way."
The only dark cloud for Pellegrini was an injury to captain Vincent Kompany which forced the Belgian defender to come off in the 70th minute.
Pellegrini admitted he wouldn't be certain what the problem was until Kompany was checked out by the medical team.
"We will see during the week about Vincent Kompany," he added. "The doctor will know exactly what injury he has. We will see what the best thing to do is."