Riyad Mahrez believes the two 'quick' goals ensured Manchester City's 'battle' with Newcastle United looked 'easy'.
Pep Guardiola's side secured a comfortable 4-0 victory at St James' Park on Sunday, with the latest loss ensuring the Magpies remain three points' adrift of safety.
Early goals from Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo helped the visitors race into a two-goal lead by the 27th minute, and Mahrez reckons it was these early strikes which meant a potentially tricky afternoon turned into a routine win.
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The forward told the club's website : "Every game is a battle. It's always good to score early in the game and that's what we did. Overall it was a good game and we deserved to win.
"We had a very good second half. The first half wasn’t very good but we still scored two goals and stayed solid, but the second half we played so good and deserved to score even more goals to get the win.
"We never gave them an opportunity, but I think it was still a tough battle. They were very aggressive.
"It wasn’t an easy game, obviously when you score two quick goals you make it easy for yourself."
Newcastle were left aggrieved following Martin Atkinson's decision not to award the hosts a first-half penalty for Ederson's clumsy challenge on Ryan Fraser.
VAR decided against overturning the on-field decision, and City were again the benficiaries when Mahrez's goal was correctly allowed to stand following a rview having previously been ruled out for offside.
It was the Algerian international's 50th goal for the club, but the 30-year-old insists the landmark would have meant nothing without the victory.
Mahrez added: "It's not bad, as long as it helps the team win games, that's the most important thing," he said.
"I was quite sure I was onside as I saw the defender running with me so I didn't think I was offside.
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"The numbers don't matter. We just have to win game after game, try to play good to win. That's the most important.
"The numbers, maybe at the end if you make a lot of wins, it's nice to know. The most important is just to win the next game."
