BY OUR MAN AT THE ETIHAD
PEP GUARDIOLA might have been banned from the touchline, but his Manchester City stars clearly didn’t need a babysitter as they smashed TEN past helpless Exeter City.
In a cold-blooded FA Cup massacre that would make a horror movie look like a rom-com, the Premier League giants equalled their 39-year club record by hitting double figures at the Etihad.
Poor Exeter, 14th in League One, arrived with 8,000 dreaming Grecians but left with their ears ringing and their nets shredded.
The carnage started just 12 minutes in when youngster Max Alleyne poked home. From there, the floodgates didn’t just open—they burst.
New £64m man Antoine Semenyo showed he was worth every penny of his Bournemouth transfer fee, bagging a debut goal and an assist.
He looked more like a seasoned shark than a new arrival, feasting on a League One defense that simply couldn’t live with City’s “Champagne Football.”
But it wasn’t just the big money stars.
17-year-old Ryan McAidoo came off the bench to hammer home the ninth, proving that the City academy production line is still churning out monsters.
Exeter’s afternoon went from bad to “please make it stop” when they managed to score two own goals in just three minutes before the break.
Jack Fitzwater and Jake Doyle-Hayes will be seeing the back of their own net in their nightmares for weeks.
Rodri—playing like a man who hasn’t missed a day of football in his life—unleashed a 30-yard “thunder-bastard” that nearly took the stanchion off. Rico Lewis grabbed a brace, while Tijjani Reijnders and Nico O’Reilly also got in on the act.
First time City have hit 10 since beating Huddersfield in 1987
Biggest FA Cup win by a top-flight side since 1960.
NINE different City names on the scoresheet (including “Own Goal”).
Exeter’s George Birch did manage a 90th-minute screamer to give the travelling fans something to cheer, but City immediately went up the other end to make it ten.
As the full-time whistle blew, the scoreboard read like a cricket score. For Exeter, it was a long, silent bus ride back to Devon. For City? It’s just another day at the office.
