Man City began their latest Premier League reign with a thrilling 4-3 victory at Newcastle, with Ferran Torres' hat-trick helping City to more history
Pep Guardiola's side walked out to a guard of honour at St James' Park, having clinched the Premier League title on Tuesday evening after Manchester United's defeat to Leicester gave them an unassailable lead
It was a good thing they already had the trophy wrapped up too, otherwise Friday's game would have proved to be a nail-biting and nervous evening where the pendulum continuously swung between the two sides
Newcastle - who are already assured of their own Premier League safety - took a shock lead when Emil Krafth (25) nodded home his first top-flight goal, beating Man City debutant Scott Carson
 But City replied with a quick double - Joao Cancelo (39) and Torres' (42) superb first strike firing the champions in front
But there was more VAR drama to come in the first half
 In the second minute of injury time, Nathan Ake's clumsy challenge saw Joelinton fouled in the area
 Referee Kevin Friend initially turned down the penalty after Allan Saint-Maximin was adjudged to be offside in the build-up, but VAR ruled the Newcastle forward onside and the penalty was subsequently awarded
 Joelinton (45+6) then hammered home from the spot to level things up before the break
The second half continued in the same topsy-turvy vein
 Newcastle were awarded another spot-kick just after the hour as Kyle Walker fouled Joe Willock
 It was the Arsenal loanee who stepped up for the second, seeing his penalty saved by Carson but slotting home the rebound (62), scoring in his fifth successive Premier League game
But Torres completed his hat-trick soon after (64, 66) - both smart finishes, much like his first - to seal a hard-earned three points for Man City
It was their 12th successive away win in the Premier League - the most in the top four tiers of English league football - and beat the record held by Chelsea (2008) and themselves (2017)
Victory moves City onto 83 points at the top of the table, while a spirited Newcastle remain in 16th with both teams having two league games left to play
Unsurprisingly, Man City had early sights on goal
 Ake sent an effort sailing wide, before Gabriel Jesus was gifted a chance by a poor defensive header from Paul Dummett, but his powerful hit just drifted past the post
 Torres then went close with a superb run towards the near post, but his poked effort flashed side
Man City continued to dominate, but it was in fact Newcastle who had the best chance until that point
 It was a superb counter-attack as Krafth unleashed Allan Saint-Maximin, who in turn picked out Joelinton
 But as he went to strike, Kyle Walker was across to make a crucial block
And the corner handed Newcastle a shock lead
 Jonjo Shelvey delivered the set piece with Krafth - in between two defenders - looped his header back across goal and into the far corner
 Shelvey almost made it two ten minutes later
 He lined up a free kick after a crunching Ake challenge on Miguel Almiron, but could only curl his free kick onto the crossbar
Man City scored a quickfire double soon after
 There was a touch of bad luck to the goal too as Cancelo's effort took a big deflection off Jacob Murphy on the way through, sending the ball darting past Martin Dubravka
But City's second was a moment of sensational skill from Torres
 Ilkay Gundogan whipped in a pacey free kick, with Torres edging ahead of Shelvey to brilliantly flick the ball golawards with his heel, sending it past an already-leaping Dubravka
The drama was not over there
 In the third minute of added time, the Newcastle shouts went up for a penalty as Ake's sliding tackle brought down Joelinton in the area
 The referee initially ruled out the calls for offside in the build-up
VAR stepped in and after a lengthy check, deemed Saint-Maximin to be onside it the build-up and Ake's challenge to be enough for a penalty
 Without regular penalty taker Callum Wilson, Joelinton stepped up and rocketed his effort past Carson to end an entertaining half
As the clock ticked over the hour, the goals flooded into St James' Park
 Newcastle were awarded their second penalty of the evening as Walker caught Willock inside the area in a clear foul
 The Arsenal loanee - on a superb run of form - took this time, but his initially effort was superbly saved by Carson
 But Willock was lurking and despite slipping, managed to reach the ball first and slot home
Just like the first half though, the Premier League champions came out swinging as Torres made it 3-3 mere minutes later
 Jesus cut the ball back into his path, waiting on the penalty spot, and it was a smart finish to level things up again
The Spaniard nabbed his hat-trick two minutes late in another sensational finish
 Cancelo's initial strike smacked the foot of the post, but Torres was waiting and showed superb reactions to volley the ball past Dubravka as the pendulum swung back in City's favour
From then on, Man City showed off their Premier League-winning credentials and mostly kept Newcastle at bay, knocking the ball between themselves for the final 15 minutes of the game to seal another victory
It was a sensational performance from Torres
 As Man City look for Sergio Aguero's successor, the Spaniard has put himself at the forefront of the reckoning
First - the stats
 He had the highest number of shots (5) and all three that were on target ended up in the back of the net
 What sensational finishes each of them were too
 He showed superb skill, brilliant reactions and vital instincts that will serve him well in the Premier League
Sky Sports' Andy Hinchcliffe said: "City have such an abundance of attacking riches that Torres at times maybe slightly under the radar
 But he's showcased his attacking talents tonight - three great goals, great finishes
 He came alive in the Newcastle penalty area and he deserves the award
 He's been brilliant
" "We gave it a right good go
 We gave Man City a fright tonight but we weren't quite good enough
"Although I can't remember the goalkeeper making save after save, just the sloppiness of a couple of goals is the disappointing thing of the whole evening for me
"How often do you score three against this mob? Not very often, so the disappointing thing is we just got up and we were a bit naïve and our defending had to be better at times
"It's just getting that balance right, we know we're a threat on the counter-attack and a threat for any team but we have to get that balance right defensively
"We can't keep conceding the way we have done unfortunately because it's not often you can score three and fours in the Premier League, we have to defend better
"We've now got to try to get a couple of wins if we can and finish off the season in the form we're in
 We've got to stay at it and see where we can get to
""We made mistakes because we are champions, because the players were distracted a little bit in the last days, this is normal
 We knew it but the spirit from the first minute until the end was absolutely there
"I'm really pleased and hopefully we can learn from our distractions
 I knew it could happen but at the end we won and now the team are going to celebrate and we're going to prepare to face Brighton
"I'm pretty sure we'll be more focused to prepare for the final of the Champions League
" "Not just this evening, of course this evening was important, but his first season in England and his number are exceptional
 He came as a winger, but he has to think about a striker
 When Sergio, Gabriel were out, he was there