Manuel Pellegrini has revealed that tactical reasons were behind his decision to withdraw Raheem Sterling midway through Manchester City's 6-1 rout of Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Citizens' £49m man was replaced by Jesus Navas at the break in an inspired tactical tweak at Eastlands which saw the hosts score five second-half goals, with Sergio Aguero adding another four to add to his first-half equaliser, while Kevin De Bruyne also found the net.

"No, Raheem was not injured," the Chilean told a post-match press conference. "I think we needed another way to try and penetrate the defence.

"In this case, maybe we are talking about what Kun [Aguero] did because it was unbelievable and about De Bruyne and David Silva. But I think that Jesus was very important.

"He opened spaces that maybe in the first half we couldn't. Kevin improved playing on the left side. In this case it was not a good day for Raheem but he will continue being a very important player for us."

Aleksandar Mitrovic had opened the scoring for the Magpies.