Omar Marmoush arrived in the ­winter window as a 20-goal forward for Eintracht Frankfurt and against Newcastle emphatically showed why, via a scintillating 14-minute first-half hat-trick that tore the opposition apart. For the Egyptian and Manchester City, joy; for the visitors, despair, as they were sent home reeling, on the back of a 16th consecutive Premier League reverse here.

At the break, a home fan suggested it was “the best first 45 minutes I’ve seen all season”: he was not far wrong, because when City are performing like this you see how Pep Guardiola might revive his embattled champions.

Related: Emergency striker Merino rescues Arsenal with double to sink Leicester

With a quarter of an hour left Marmoush had his moment, as the manager removed him and the jubilant home congregation gave him a richly deserved ovation. Of his star act, Guardiola said: “Three goals – we knew it. In Germany he made good numbers. We knew with his dynamism he would do good. Hopefully he can handle the biggest compliments. It’s so simple, when you play well everybody adapts quickly. When you don’t play well you need time.”

Nico González was as impressive, doing the type of cleaning up and work City sorely miss due to the absence of Rodri, to whom his manager compared him.

“He is like a mini-Rodri, a big compliment,” said Guardiola. “He’s miles away from Rodri – he’s the best – but we have the feeling he’ll help us in the last part of the season with his presence [because] Nico helps a lot, in the 50/50s [or] if there are 10 balls he wins seven. There was a moment he was correcting Erling [Haaland] – when this happens, you think in the next six, seven years and when we have Rodri back that will give us more presence and stability.”

The manager was as approving of a Haaland stampede that zigzagged him into Newcastle’s area and required Dan Burn’s sliding tackle to stop a shot. All day, Newcastle could not cut off City’s attacking pipeline, and soon Marmoush had a first effort, unloading after darting along his left flank.

The next time he took aim, he scored, a product of a beautiful route-one move: Ederson advanced and flipped a sweet low 50-yard pass; Kieran Trippier, tracking Marmoush’s left-right diagonal, leaped, missed the ball, and as Martin Dubravka rushed out, the forward’s chip bounced and kissed the open net. Ederson’s assist was the sixth of his career in the Premier League– the most for a goalkeeper.

Marmoush’s second goal in City colours soon followed and had a case for being better than the first. As he and other teammates assembled near Newcastle’s area, Ilkay Gündogan tapped to Marmoush. The initial touch knocked the ball to his right, again Trippier was left a patsy, and the finish, coming from an inside-left channel, defeated Dubravka at the tighter, near corner.

For a phase Newcastle camped near Ederson’s goal and went close when a City mix-up allowed Alexander Isak to shoot, John Stones’s intervention doing enough to send the ball wobbling wide.

Marmoush’s outing rocketed further, and this was City at their ruthless best: Phil Foden passed to Savinho, who glided along the right, beyond Lewis Hall, and turned the ball into the area for City’s No 7 to steer home.

Eddie Howe’s response to his side’s routing was to remove the anonymous Joe Willock for Lewis Miley and the shell-shocked Trippier for Tino Livramento at half‑time. Mid-game, City’s X account posted a picture of Marmoush with the caption “The Pharaoh of Manchester”; he did indeed rule but when chasing and chopping down Miley he showed less regal tasks were his too.

• Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.

• If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.

• In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.

• Turn on sport notifications.

For Newcastle, Livramento’s output immediately dwarfed Trippier’s as he skipped down a right corridor and fed Jacob Murphy: City were turned but the winger’s cross was put out by Stones. The corner proved a dud but there was hope, perhaps, that Newcastle could do what Feyenoord did here and claw back a second half 3-0 deficit. But this soon faded as City kept their foot on the jugular.

Haaland hunted down Burn as he meandered across his goal and the No 9 set up Savinho. Then, Josko Gvardiol launched a buccaneering run along the left and had Guardiola imploring the faithful to join in with his claps. An entertaining subplot was the Haaland-Burn tussle that now featured the big striker manhandling the even bigger centre-back at a rare Newcastle free-kick that was theirs after the Norwegian, captain for the day, hurled Bruno Guimarães to the turf.

Towards the end a Haaland flick was volleyed in by James McAtee to top off City’s day.