Newcastle United’s run of three straight away wins came to an end at the Etihad Stadium, as expected, with Manchester City beating the Magpies 2–1 to move within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal while NUFC dropped to the most-mediocre 10th place in the table.
Eddie Howe’s side, fresh from a 6–1 Champions League win in Azerbaijan, made only one change to the XI that dominated Qarabag but fell behind after just 14 minutes.
Nico O’Reilly
collected a pass on the edge of the area and struck low past Nick Pope, who got a hand to the effort but could not keep it out. Ominous sight.
Newcastle responded with pace on the counterattack and levelled in the 22nd minute. From a corner, the ball broke to Lewis Hall and his shot deflected past Gianluigi Donnarumma (not James Trafford, just saying) to make it 1–1.
Parity, however, lasted a meager five minutes as O’Reilly restored City’s lead with a header, rising unmarked to meet a cross after Antoine Semenyo and Erling Haaland combined on the right.
Newcastle pushed for another equalizer before the break and thought they had it when Dan Burn headed home from Sandro Tonali’s free-kick, but the flag was raised for offside. Replays suggested Burn may have been pushed by Ruben Dias before the delivery, but that’s awareness from the Cityzen more than anything, so kudos to him for bending the rulebook.
The second half was faster and a tad more physical, with City creating the clearer chances but failing to extend their advantage, leaving the door open for the Magpies to do something they’ve never done at the Etihad.
Newcastle stepped into Cityzen territory late on, and Harvey Barnes forced a fingertip save from Donnarumma in stoppage time, yet they could not find a second goal. Sheesh.
“I don’t think we were on the right end of the decisions today, but I don’t want to go down that road, I’m not one of those managers that wants to continually criticise officials,” Howe said. “But I thought, again, it was one that we probably didn’t get the right end of the decisions.”
The defeat leaves Newcastle 10th, with 36 points from 27 matches, 11 points from relegation, and nine from Chelsea in fourth.
Howe and his Geordies will return to action on Tuesday, hosting Qarabag in the second leg of their Champions League play-off in what looks more than ever like a get-right game against a way lesser team—than Man City, that is.
