Manchester City boss Mark Hughes said his developing team had "set a standard" after destroying Portsmouth with some superb football.

"We saw the right pass at the right time on many occasions," said Hughes after Sunday's 6-0 rout at Eastlands.

"We have set a standard for ourselves. It was a perfect day."

Hughes also reserved special praise for Irish midfielder Stephen Ireland and �32.5m Brazilian forward Robinho as six players got on the scoresheet.

"I thought Stephen Ireland was the outstanding player," he said. "He has been for our past four games.

"Robinho pulled the strings time and time again for us. All the goals were superb."

Portsmouth were torn apart from the first minute as confident City turned on the style with the club's new chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak watching from the stands.

We were abysmal Harry Redknapp Portsmouth manager

Jo opened the scoring before Richard Dunne got a second and the deluge continued after half-time as Ireland created classy goals for Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips after which substitutes Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes completed the rout.

"It was a fantastic day for everybody," said Hughes. "It was a difficult game on paper but I thought we were excellent in the first half.

"It was the best performance by one of my teams by a country mile.

"Portsmouth are a good side but today they were not allowed to play their game."

Pompey manager Harry Redknapp was highly critical of his hapless side after they capitulated against rampant City.

"It was amazing, we don't get smashed up that often," he said. "We are a difficult side to beat. We couldn't see it coming, even at half-time.

606: DEBATE Just watched the game and was amazed by the sheer skill and football brain of Steve Ireland... ackjack

"Defensively, it was the worst I have ever seen from us. It was a poor Portsmouth performance.

"Once we went three down we were all over the place, we were abysmal. We had big problems hanging on.

"It was a chapter of errors and they did not have much to say for themselves afterwards.

"Tomorrow we will have a meeting and look at all the goals and where we went wrong."