Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew was satisfied in defeat to Manchester City.
Pardew was able to take positives from defeat in a game which saw him hand competitive debuts to Daryl Janmaat, Jack Colback, Remy Cabella and Emmanuel Riviere, with Ayoze Perez and Rolando Aarons getting a first taste from the bench.
Pardew said: "I honestly feel we have come up against individuals today who we are not going to see every week.
"Some of their play is outstanding and you have only got to see it close up to know the quality of [Samir] Nasri and Silva, the power of Yaya Toure, and Dzeko up front is a real handful, and I thought we coped with it as well as we could.
"When you play the top teams, you need a break - there's no doubt about that.
"Whenever I have won against the tops sides, you get a break in the game and it didn't happen for us today. We didn't get a ricochet or something that fell our way.
"But I am as pleased as I can be with a 2-0 defeat."
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