Manchester City went into Sunday's clash with Newcastle United armed with two pieces of motivation. To right the wrongs of Wednesday's collapse against Real Madrid and to capitalise on Premier League title rivals Liverpool dropping points against Tottenham.
Much was made of how Pep Guardiola and City would react when they faced Newcastle at the Etihad. From the early stages you could tell there would be no repeat of Wednesday's embarrassment.
Speaking before the game, former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand predicted that City would pull no punches against Eddie Howe's side, saying he thought their players would need 'no team talk' from Guardiola to fire them up.
He was right. The 14 players used for City were up for it from minute one, not letting up even in the closing stages.
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"I was at the Liverpool game and Spurs should have won that game. Advantage to City now and they don't even need a team talk," Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel over the weekend. "More than anything this would have helped City mentally. Liverpool had won, they are through and they were elated.
"City were really low and they were down after midweek and rightly so, that's the way that it is after games like that. It takes so much out of you in extra-time and the way in which they lost. Devastating.
"I don't think Pep Guardiola even needs to do a team talk. They have got what they wanted and they got the incentive for them to go and make a bit more of a gap by winning against Newcastle. He will freshen it up and bring news faces in. It will be good for them because the players that come in won't be as mentally scarred as the ones that were out there."
Ferdinand's pre-match prediction that Pep would also rotate was bang on. The Spaniard made big changes from the Madrid debacle, dropping Phil Foden to the bench, not giving any minutes to Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva and replacing the crocked Kyle Walker for the Premier League clash.
City are on a different planet to Newcastle. In a few years, the Magpies will hope to be competing alongside them. For now, they must lick their wounds and prepare for a summer of wholesale changes of their own.
