Manchester City started their Premier League title defence with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park.
David Silva opened the scoring in the closing stages of the first half, before Sergio Aguero grabbed another in the dying minutes of the game.
After City's 3-0 defeat against Arsenal in the FA Community Shield, Manuel Pellegrini took no chances as he fielded a strong side consisting of Joe Hart, Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis, David Silva, Fernando, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko.
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew, on the other hand, gave a chance to a number of summer signings including Emmanuel Riviere, Remy Cabella, Jack Colback and Daryl Janmaat.
The game started with Manchester City putting the Magpies' defence under a lot of pressure as they continuously bombarding the hosts' defence with a number of attacks in the opening 10-15 minutes.
The defending English champions nearly took the lead in the second minute of the game when Stevan Jovetic picked up Edin Dzeko with a brilliant lofted pass. The Bosnian striker unleashed an effort from close range but an alert Tim Krul managed to keep his effort out.
Moments later, the Dutch goalkeeper was again tested as he was forced to make a full length dive to keep out a venomous effort from Samir Nasri.
After being restricted to their own defensive third in the opening stages of the game, Newcastle slowly began to get into the game.
Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson started to thoroughly mark Dzeko and Jovetic and this allowed other Newcastle players to advance forward.
Although Cabella and Riviere made some good runs forward, they failed to really test Hart in goal.
While Cabella sent a lofted effort in the 16th minute over the crossbar, Riviere was also unable find the target as he dragged his shot wide five minutes later.
Despite the Toon's best effort to mark the City attackers, they soon fell behind in the 38th minute courtesy of a Silva strike.
Dzeko, off a brilliant long ball from Yaya Toure, played a clever backheel to Silva, who made no mistake as he slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
After the break, Newcastle looked determined to get the equaliser as they started piling up the pressure on City's defence.
While Colback's corner was just beyond the reach of Yoan Gouffran in the 50th minute, Cabella couldn't keep his composure as he scooped an effort over the crossbar after receiving a pass from Mohamed Sissoko.
Despite more pressure from the hosts, as full-back Paul Dummett headed over another corner from Colback, the visitors would have doubled their lead at the hour mark had it not been for Coloccini, who managed to produce a crucial block to prevent Jovetic from scoring.
City again started exercising their dominance towards the closing stages of the game as Dzeko just headed wide in the 75th minute, and Yaya Toure sent a freekick over eight minutes later.
Finally, substitute Sergio Aguero put the game to bed as he doubled City's lead in the second minute of added time. The Argentine, after breaking clear of the Magpies defence, fired an effort straight at Krul, who, despite making the initial block, was unable to prevent the striker from finding the net from the rebound.
