Manchester City 6 Portsmouth 0: Brazilians offer City glimpse of a dazzling new world

The money arrives for sure tomorrow, when Manchester City is placed formally in Arab hands and the fans who have found a new use for tea towels can be sure they will not wake up to find it has all been a dream. But here was how their new world really might be.

City’s new Brazilians, Robinho and Jo, wear the same green boots and that is not the only way they coordinate. The magnetism between the two looks like it is going to do some serious damage this season and so will the Robinho quality which finally revealed itself in full here: the choice of pass, the workload, the way he stands foot on top of the ball in the inside-left channel, the full back unsure whether he will advance or roll it back under his studs back to the flank. City’s new chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak who met Mark Hughes on Friday, could hardly believe what he was watching as he sat in the Colin Bell Stand alongside Sheikh Mansour Al Nayan’s envoy, Simon Pearce.

Shaun Wright-Phillips also looked, once again, like a player utterly reborn. But the man who wore the biggest smile in the stadium when he walked from the field and reached for his manager’s hand was Stephen Ireland. The Irishman has had his critics this season and is playing on borrowed time with Hughes already discussing next January with the Arabs. But it was he who converted a solid City win into a walkover, lofting a ball he had just won 30 yards into Jo’s path to set up Robinho’s clipped right-foot shot for City’s third, then threading a ball behind Sylvain Distin for Wright-Phillips to dispatch, with a venom, the fourth. Ireland’s left-foot tackle in his own box which dispossessed Armand Traoré as he ran through was of no less significance. “He was an exceptional once again and has been for many weeks,” Hughes said of the midfielder. “We hope he can retain this.”

It was a day which will live long in Hughes’ mind, City’s biggest win in the Premier League and the best club performance the City manager has ever presided over “by a country mile”, he said – a stark contrast to a disconsolate Harry Redknapp who said he could not recall a worse performance from his many sides.

City, sixth last night and with more goals – 15 from five – than any other side, can draw real conclusions from the result, against a team whose wins against Everton and Middlesbrough have shown them to be genuine top-six challengers. Portsmouth were not allowed to deploy the flying wingers – Glen Johnson and Traoré – from the five-man midfield.

Three minutes had elapsed when Robinho forced David James to touch around a post and it was his ball down the left channel which released Jo to skip past David James and slide home a first league goal which was genuinely made in Brazil.

Sol Campbell looked wretched at times and Distin will have few worse days. When Elano’s clipped corner from the left hit the base of James’s post, neither he nor Distin could cope with it and Richard Dunne, on his 29th birthday, slid in the second – his first league goal since October 2006. It was a party by then, Robinho opting to slide his right leg inside his left to poke one shot in, when a levelled pass to Jo was the requirement.

Portsmouth briefly tested the weakness which may haunt City – Javier Garrido’s lack of pace at left-back – and settled into their modus operandi of throwing long balls into Peter Crouch. Sol Campbell stooped to head the most dangerous Crouch knock-back but Pablo Zabaleta cleared off the line.

But then the rout began. Robinho nutmegged Campbell and saw Wright-Phillips backheel his pass to Ched Evans to sidefoot a fifth before James flapped at Garrido’s deep cross from the left and the ball squirmed into Gelson Fernandes’ path for a sixth.

The news got better for City last night when an open letter to fans from Sheikh Mansour, who watched this game in Abu Dhabi, provided a suggestion that he has an understanding of his new acquisition. “We are ambitious for the club but not unreasonably so,” Mansour said. “We understand it takes time to build a team capable of sustaining a presence in the Premier League and winning European honours. Whilst we want to bring in the best players in the world we also want to see the academy [grow].” Music to City’s ears. Days do not come much better than this in football.

Goals: Jo ( 14) 1-0; Dunne (20) 2-0; Robinho (64) 3-0; Wright-Phillips (67) 4-0; Evans (78) 5-0; Fernandes (83) 6-0.

Manchester City (4-1-3-2): Hart; Garrido, Dunne, Richards, Zabaleta; Kompany; Wright-Phillips, Ireland (Fernandes, 76) Elano; Robinho (Sturridge, 85) , Jo (Evans, 70). Substitutes not used: Schmeichel (gk), Ben Haim, Ball, Hamann.

Portsmouth (3-5-2) James; Kaboul, Campbell, Distin; Johnson, Davis (Diop, 32), Diarra, Belhadj, A Traoré; Crouch, Defoe. Substitutes not used: Utaka, Kanu, Ashdown (gk), Hreidarsson, Pamarot, Mvuemba.

Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).

Bookings: Portsmouth Diarra

Man of the match: Robinho.

Attendance: 40,238.