Manchester City 4 Newcastle 0: Steven Taylor has apologised to Newcastle for red card, reveals Alan Pardew

Taylor inexplicably decided to swipe Sergio Aguero round the head with his forearm

Newcastle's Steven Taylor is shown a straight red card last night (AP)

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has revealed Steven Taylor apologised for the needless red card that helped condemn the Magpies to a 4-0 defeat at Manchester City on Monday night.

As the visitors were already two goals adrift when Taylor inexplicably decided to swipe Sergio Aguero round the head with his forearm, it probably did not change the outcome much.

But it ended any slim hope Newcastle might have had of retrieving something from a one-sided contest and leaves Taylor facing a three-match ban.

"The sending off was completely out of character for Steven and he has apologised," said Magpies manager Alan Pardew.

"I can't really say anymore except that he is an honest player who made a mistake and we had to suffer the penalty for that.

"After the sending off we were digging in, and the spirit and the commitment the guys showed I was quite proud of them in the second half."

If Pardew's day could hardly have been worse, Manuel Pellegrini could not have got his City career off to a better start.

David Silva opened the scoring with a header after just six minutes.

Sergio Aguero added another before the break, then Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri wrapped up an easy win in the second-half.

"The most important thing always is to win but afterwards, it is the way we did it," Pellegrini said.

"It was a very good start. I was very confident the team would play well because we worked very hard during pre-season.

"We are trying another style of football and maybe we can continue improving every week but for the first match we did it very well."

With new boys Fernandinho and Jesus Nevas both impressing, the one negative was a groin injury picked up by skipper Vincent Kompany.

The Belgian had to be replaced by Javi Garcia in the second-half and with Matija Nastastic currently injured and Kolo Toure transferred to Liverpool, Joleon Lescott could be City's only fit central defender for next Sunday's trip to Cardiff.

"I can't tell you exactly what happened with him," said Pellegrini.

"The doctor will say but I think it is a serious injury and maybe (he will be out) for one or two weeks."

PA