Harvey Barnes scored twice for Newcastle United as Manchester City slumped to a second consecutive away defeat in the Premier League.
The 27-year-old winger fizzed his first in from the edge of the box,
before bundling home a second following a set piece. Ruben Dias equalised for City in between, as a drilled low volley squirmed into the back of the net.
Both teams missed plenty of big chances. The two centre forwards Nick Woltemade and Erling Haaland were denied several times, whilst Phil Foden and Savinho were amongst others to miss good chances for Pep Guardiola’s side.
There were also a few refereeing decisions in Newcastle’s favour. The Blues were denied two first half penalties that many pundits and fans claim to be the wrong decision, and from certain angles Barnes’s winner appeared to be offside, but was ruled to be onside by the VAR team.
Here are three things we learned from the defeat in the North East:
An off-day for Haaland can affect the whole attack
It just wasn’t Haaland’s day.
City’s number nine has scored a sensational 32 goals already this season for club and country, but against the Magpies his touch was sloppy and he missed a few chances you’d have expected him to convert.
Foden behind him was poor too. He struggled to get involved in the game, missed City’s biggest opportunity and kept giving the ball away when it came to him.
It shows to me that when those two (particularly Haaland) have off days, which they’re entitled to occasionally given all they’ve contributed to City, the attack struggles to function without them.
Jeremy Doku played ok but was the first man subbed and isn’t a natural goalscorer, Oscar Bobb is finding his feet again after injury and has struggled so far, Rayan Cherki needs time to settle, Omar Marmoush seems to be out of favour and the jury is very much out on Savinho and whether he is good enough.
Without Haaland leading the line well and Foden chipping in behind him, the City team have tended to struggle so far this campaign which was evidenced against Newcastle on Saturday.
Defenders were good individually but need to be less open as a unit
I can’t say that any of Dias, Matheus Nunes, Josko Gvardiol, Nico O’Reilly or Gianluigi Donnarumma had poor games.
The big Italian goalkeeper made a few excellent saves to deny Nick Woltemade for Newcastle, and though he made an almost catastrophic mistake inside the first minute, he can’t be held accountable for either of the goals City conceded.
Nunes is improving at right back, Dias scored and is beginning to look like one of the best centre halves in the league again, Gvardiol was much better than against Liverpool and O’Reilly looks at home at left back, and continues to keep Rayan Ait-Nouri out of the team.
Nico Gonzalez I feel could have played the ball forward quicker at times but I have no complaints concerning his defensive play; he held his own well against one of the best midfield trios in the Premier League.
The issue was that City looked too open for Newcastle transitions, and to be fair, the home side played very well and exploited the City attack particularly in the second half.
It’s encouraging to see that the Blues were much better than they were against Tottenham and Brighton, for instance, but there are areas that they have to tighten up in order to challenge Arsenal for the Premier League this season.
No huge concerns for the long term
As mentioned above, I don’t look at this team and think there are huge issues like this time a year ago.
The board have done a good job in spending lots of money in areas where City need players after a few years of negligence. Credit to Guardiola too – he found temporary solutions in O’Reilly at left back and Nunes and Abdukodir Khusanov at right back that have turned out to be game changers and save City a signing.
And there are many players who have already shown a better level on the whole than last season. Doku is the main example, with Foden, Nico, Dias, Nunes and even Haaland having gone up a gear from last campaign too.
Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and Ait-Nouri will become good squad players at the very least once they’ve adapted fully, and after the likes of Bernardo Silva, Nathan Ake and John Stones have left, we can expect them to be replaced with new players.
The City project will take time to get back to its best, and whilst results like this aren’t great, no-one can really say they’re worried about the team like they were last season.
