Riyad Mahrez hailed Manchester City’s goalscoring power after the dethroned Premier League champions swept Newcastle aside 5-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
The Algeria international found the net along with Gabriel Jesus, David Silva and Raheem Sterling, while City benefited from a Federico Fernandez own goal in the victory.
The rout took City’s goal tally in the Premier League this season to 86 from 34 games — 11 more than champions Liverpool, who they hammered 4-0 last week. Mahrez’s 21st-minute strike was his 10th of the campaign, meaning he joined Sergio Aguero (16), Raheem Sterling (14), Kevin De Bruyne and Gabriel Jesus (both 11) in double figures.
It is the first time in the history of the Premier League that one club has had five players reach 10 goals. “That’s our team — (we know) that everyone can score,” said Mahrez. “Everyone has the quality to score. “For me I want to try to help the team and score the most goals that I can. “It’s not easy but we made it easy by scoring early in the game and after we had more control and could try to score more goals.”
It was an emphatic return to winning ways after Sunday’s surprise loss for second-placed City at Southampton. Mahrez said: “I think we played good (at Southampton) but we missed a lot of chances. Here we scored — that’s the difference. “We need to keep it up and keep working to help the team to improve and we arrive in the best form in the important games.”
