Cumbrian goalkeeper Scott Carson was handed his Manchester City debut and a first Premier League appearance in almost 10 years as the champions travelled to Newcastle.

Veteran Carson, from Cleator Moor, has been a trusted member of the Premier League club’s goalkeeping ranks in a loan stint from Derby County.

The 35-year-old had not played a top-flight game in England since a 3-3 draw at St James' Park with West Brom in May 2011.

But the former Leeds, Liverpool, West Brom and England keeper has been described as “so important behind the scenes” by Guardiola.

Carson was included in place of Ederson in one of five changes to the side which lost at Chelsea.

Kyle Walker, Eric Garcia, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan also came in for Aymeric Laporte, Ruben Dias, Benjamin Mendy and Sergio Aguero, the latter of whom did not even make the bench, in a side captained by Raheem Sterling.

Newcastle head coach Steve Bruce, whose side secured their Premier League status last weekend, made just one enforced change as striker Joelinton replaced injured leading scorer Callum Wilson.

The visitors dominated the early stages, although without creating meaningful changes, and it was the Magpies who took the lead with 25 minutes gone.

Emil Krafth's long ball set Allan Saint-Maximin on his way and when he squared for Joelinton, Kyle Walker blocked the striker's shot out for a corner.

Jonjo Shelvey delivered the set-piece to the far post, where defender Krafth rose to head firmly past the helpless Carson, his first goal for the club.

Newcastle were unfortunate not to extend their lead 10 minutes before the break when when Shelvey curled a free-kick over the defensive wall and saw it come back off the crossbar with the keeper beaten.

The visitors were back in it three minutes later when Joao Cancelo's shot clipped Jacob Murphy's heels and flew past the wrong-footed Martin Dubravka.

The Magpies' keeper was beaten again three minutes before the break when Torres audaciously flicked Gundogan's free-kick across him and inside the far post to make it 2-1.

Bruce's men had a chance to level deep into stoppage time when Nathan Ake was adjudged to have tripped Joelinton and after a VAR review, referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot.

The Brazilian striker stepped up to smash the spot-kick past Carson and make it 2-2 at the break.

The Magpies regained the lead with 62 minutes gone when, after Kyle Walker had tripped Joe Willock inside the box, the midfielder saw his penalty saved by Carson, but tucked the rebound into the empty net.

However, the lead last just seconds when Torres stabbed home Gabriel Jesus' driven cross to make it 3-3.

It was 4-3 to the visitors with 24 minutes remaining when Cancelo's shot came back off the post and Torres converted the rebound.

Newcastle simply did not see enough of the ball to drag themselves back into the game as time ran down with City holding out comfortably to seal a 4-3 win.

Torres told Sky Sports: "It's been an incredible week. We qualified for the Champions League final then we won the Premier League and obviously today I scored the hat-trick so I'm very, very happy.

"I try to improve day-by-day and also try to learn from my team-mates, from the manager. I scored a hat-trick with the Spanish national team against Germany. I try to keep ready, keep improving and get ready for the Champions League final."

As for his first goal, a wonderful flick on from a free-kick, Torres added: "It was a set-piece I always try to go to the first post and I flicked the ball, I think it was a very beautiful goal."

Newcastle head coach Steve Bruce said: "We gave it a right good go. We gave Man City a fright tonight but we weren't quite good enough.

"Although I can't remember the goalkeeper making save after save, just the sloppiness of a couple of goals is the disappointing thing of the whole evening for me.

"How often do you score three against this mob? Not very often, so the disappointing thing is we just got up and we were a bit naive and our defending had to be better at times.

"It's just getting that balance right, we know we're a threat on the counter-attack and a threat for any team but we have to get that balance right defensively.

"We can't keep conceding the way we have done unfortunately because it's not often you can score three and fours in the Premier League, we have to defend better.

"We've now got to try to get a couple of wins if we can and finish off the season in the form we're in. We've got to stay at it and see where we can get to."