Pep Guardiola didn't feel the need to make any substitutions in Manchester City's 1-0 win over Newcastle, despite having a threadbare squad and less than three days to prepare for the game.

City lifted the Super Cup in Athens on Wednesday and didn't train on Friday and had just 18 players available to face Newcastle on Saturday.

A superb strike from midfielder Julian Alvarez gave City three points in their first home game of the new Premier League season, capping off an evening of celebration of last season's treble at the Etihad Stadium.

The Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup trophies were all displayed on the pitch before kickoff, after which City comprehensively outplayed Eddie Howe's Newcastle, whose own title aspirations were dealt an early season setback.

Guardiola picked Phil Foden to take the place of the injured Kevin de Bruyne, and the 23-year-old England international responded with a man-of-the-match performance as he shouldered the burden of creating chances for the champions.

"I enjoy playing in there, hopefully in the future I can pick up more games there and show people what I can do," Foden said of his playmaker role in a TV interview.

Guardiola's side are without De Bruyne for a long-term period, while Bernardo Silva and John Stones were missing for a second game running. Aymeric Laporte was not in the squad as City have accepted an offer for the Spaniard, while Joao Cancelo continues to be out of the matchday frame.

Despite that, Guardiola opted against making changes even when the visitors were pressuring City's goal towards the end of the game. Guardiola said he didn't want to disrupt the rhythm of the performance, with City trying to catch Newcastle on the break during the latter stages.

"I thought Rico (Lewis), Kalvin (Phillips) and Cole (Palmer) to maybe a part of that, but I saw the team was alive. I know they were tired but they were still fighting for every ball."

After an opening half-hour in which the home side dominated possession, Alvarez broke the deadlock in the 31st minute when Foden picked him out on the edge of the box, and the Argentine whipped a powerful shot across Nick Pope and into the net.

Newcastle coach Eddie Howe had few complaints after seeing his side outplayed over the 90 minutes.

"They're an elite team. We tried our best to execute our plan. We weren't clinical enough," he told TNT.

Written with inputs from Reuters