Manchester City's Álvaro Negredo inspires replay win over Blackburn

Manchester City's Álvaro Negredo is congratulated by Joleon Lescott after opening the scoring in the FA Cup third-round replay at the Etihad. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

This season's Manchester City are maturing into a vintage to savour with every outing. The only side still in with a shout of an unprecedented quadruple, Manuel Pellegrini's side are a slickly smooth threshing machine that eases through the gears at will while piling up the goals for a tally that now stands at a breathtaking 99 in all competitions.

Having pushed Blackburn Rovers aside with ease, City meet Watford in the next round of the FA Cup on 25 January as Cardiff City, the next visitors on Saturday to what has become the house of pain in Manchester's blue zone, start to contemplate damage limitation.

Satisfaction was sealed here when Sergio Agüero ended a nine-game layoff due to a calf problem by entering after 72 minutes and promptly registering the fourth goal in this easy win.

Pellegrini made a particularly prescient point in his pre-game notes when discussing Sunday's 2-0 win at Newcastle United. "What was pleasing was that we didn't have the majority of possession but even without that we had more goals and more clear chances," he said. "In that sense, we are improving. Maybe at the start of the season we would have lost the game but we are better now, much tougher, and we won."

This was a reference to the stumbles away from the Etihad Stadium that had featured four away losses before mid-November. While City had not lost since on the road, the problem for Gary Bowyer's Blackburn side was that in their own cathedral the Citizens have been on a season-long goal rush terrorising just about all opponents, with the hammerings of Arsenal, 6-3, Tottenham Hotspur, 6-0, and Newcastle, 4-0, among their prize scalps.

If Bowyer thus secretly hoped to escape the Etihad without his side suffering severe damage he could hardly be blamed. Yet he could send out Blackburn having told them that they were one side to have stalled the City juggernaut in their past 10 games, the 1-1 draw they managed at Ewood Park in the initial tie the only time Pellegrini's men had not won in this span.

Under driving rain City created the first opportunity when Fernandinho's cross was met by a feathered-volley of a pass by Álvaro Negredo that set up his partner, Edin Dzeko, but the striker blasted over.

Javi García unloaded a 25-yard effort that bounced as Paul Robinson made the save but the rebound did not fall to a City player. Dzeko, who has prospered in the absence of Agüero, repeated his wildness when attempting to finish a Jesús Navas free-kick.

Before this Rovers had threatened on one or two occasions. Tom Cairney raced at Matija Nastasic, who has lost his first-team place to Martín Demichelis, and after being slipped by the midfielder conceded the foul near the D of City's area. Ben Marshall stepped up but placed the dead ball straight into Costel Pantilimon's hands, much to Bowyer's annoyance, the manager smacking his hands in frustration in the technical area.

Perhaps the visiting manager had identified the Romanian as a weak link as there had been an earlier moment when DJ Campbell put the keeper under pressure by charging down a back-pass that Pantilimon only just managed to clear.

The closest the contest came to having its first strike arrived as half-time approached. Navas, in for the injured Samir Nasri, drove down the right and when he fired the ball low across the Rovers goal first Negredo, then Fernandinho, came agonisingly close to finishing into the empty net.

The Spaniard got in behind but his pull-back failed to find Dzeko. There was then the sight of James Milner's deflected cross bouncing in front of Robinson and, in slightly farcical fashion, over a flailing Micah Richards. Now, though, came the City opener. Fernandinho looped over a ball from the right and Negredo headed home to bring the familiar cries of "Beast" from the home crowd as the sides walked off for the interval.

The XI Pellegrini had sent out was missing Yaya Touré and David Silva, who have minor injuries, as well as Agüero and Nasri, in a side that showed eight changes from the one the manager fielded on Tyneside. As the second half began the Argentinian was spied warming up on the touchline and as he was regaled by the adoring congregation with cries of "Sergio, Sergio", Negredo decided he would quite like to score again.

This time Aleksandar Kolarov, on for Fernandinho at the break, put the ball through and the City No9 calmly collected the 21st goal in 30 appearances of what is starting to vie for the garland for best debut season in recent memory.

When these numbers are put alongside the 19 Agüero had struck in 20 games before his calf injury, a clue is given as to why City had 94 goals in all competitions coming into this match.

Dzeko, whose radar had been off, proved he too could be lethal by scoring twice before the end. The first came when Navas controlled possession, scampered to the dead-ball line and fed Dzeko, whose crashing shot was as emphatic as his final strike in the rout.