• Manchester City romped to victory in FA Cup third round tie
  • James McAtee bagged hat-trick for City, Jeremy Doku scores twice
  • Jack Grealish, Divin Mubama and Nico O'Reilly also score for City

Manchester City cruised into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a composed, confident win over League Two promotion hopefuls Salford City.

The Premier League champions have been in the doldrums for the first time under Pep Guardiola, seemingly playing themselves out of the title race for the first time in what feels like forever.

So their resounding 8-0 success over Salford, owned by Manchester United legends Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes among others, was another welcome step on the road to recovery - City's win never in doubt after Jeremy Doku opened the scoring after just four minutes.

How the game unfolded

There was a fair amount of head scratching when Guardiola announced his much-changed starting lineup, with youngster Jahmai Simpson-Pusey - who astonishingly hadn't won a game in City colours in his previous five appearances - and Nathan Ake the only two recognised defenders on the pitch.

With 20 minutes on the clock, it was essentially game over. Savinho picked up the ball on the right side before driving towards Salford's penalty area. His cute pass in-behind found the onrushing Nunes, who turned it across the six-yard box for former West Ham academy striker Divin Mubama to net his first City goal.

Kylian Kouassi's jinking run briefly threatened a highlight reel goal for Salford, but after his effort was saved easily by Ederson, City recomposed to grab a third before half-time. This time it was Nico O'Reilly's turn to score his first goal for the club, sliding the ball into the bottom-right corner after good work down the left from Doku.

Ake was replaced by Manuel Akanji at half-time as Guardiola sought to manage the workload of his defenders, both of whom have been injured recently, and the Spaniard was given further reason to smile when Grealish was hauled down inside the area.

The playmaker, without a goal this season heading into the game, stepped up to make it 4-0 by sending Young the wrong way.

James McAtee, a regular in transfer gossip columns of late, made it five just past the hour mark, tucking home from close range after more great work on the wing from Doku.

The latter made it six, converting a penalty after Curtis Tilt handled in the area, before McAtee again picked up the mantle to make it a try and conversion scoreline. He added an eighth before the game was out, taking his career goal tally for City from two to five in the space of 90 minutes.

 

But modern day football has evolved into patterns of play, organised and intense presses, and fluidity of movement - something that allowed City's host of midfield and forward players to do their thing when the opportunity arose.

It didn't take long for Matheus Nunes to pinch the ball from Salford in the heart of midfield, driving forward at their defence. His simple pass to Jack Grealish created an overload on the left flank, and Belgian winger Doku was on hand to fire into the bottom corner despite the best efforts of young Salford goalkeeper Matthew Young.