Newcastle United see winning run ended by nervy Manchester City despite valiant away performance
Eddie Howe’s Magpies were unable to make it four wins in succession against Pep Guardiola’s side who defended deep to hold on for the victory.
Away matches have been a big stumbling block for Newcastle United this season. The widely acknowledged truth is that they have lost too many of them, and played poorly in the vast majority. And yet, three away wins on the bounce in three different competitions in their last three matches has brought confidence to a Newcastle side who badly needed it when not playing at St. James’ Park.
Their fourth away game in succession brought them to the Etihad Stadium, a venue that has not been a happy hunting ground for many, many years for the Magpies. Their last win there in any competition came in 2014, in the Capital One Cup as it was back then, thanks to goals from Rolando Aarons and Moussa Sissoko. It was therefore going to be a challenge for Newcastle to extend their winning run.
In the end it was not to be for Newcastle. Their barren run in the blue half of Manchester continued, but it was certainly not a poor performance from the travelling Toon.
“We gave everything we had”, said Eddie Howe, “but we switched off a couple of times”. Those moments were enough for Manchester City to just about get over the line, highlighting that it was not the usual formality for those in sky blue when facing Newcastle on home turf.
The biggest compliment of Newcastle’s performance came from Pep Guardiola following the full time whistle. “Newcastle are an incredible team”, he said knowing full well that his team had been involved in a proper Premier League encounter. Another loss it may have been for Newcastle on the road, but it was one they could take credit from.
Manchester City were quick out of the traps and forced Newcastle into defending early on. The Magpies were desperate not to experience a repeat of the three early goals they conceded at the Etihad in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi final. Frustratingly for Eddie Howe, Manchester City found an opening before the quarter hour mark had been reached.
The goal, scored by Nico O’Reilly was a well-struck shot from outside the area, but for a keeper of Nick Pope’s experience, he really should have pushed the strike past the post. It has been an interesting season for Pope. At times he has produced top class saves, but they have been sandwiched by too many errors that have cost Newcastle points.
When the sides met only a couple of weeks ago, Newcastle knew they had to push hard to find a way back into the two-legged tie, which ultimately left them open, leading to the second and third goals. That was disappointing from a Newcastle perspective, but there was slight encouragement that despite the goals conceded, the Magpies had created big opportunities on the night which they failed to take.
This time was different. Instead of capitulating, Newcastle showed some of the quality that saw them win their last three games in succession, all of which have been away from home. This was typified by Lewis Hall scoring the equaliser less than ten minutes after O’Reilly’s opener. Hall’s goal took a big deflection off Rayan Aït-Nouri; enough to see it creep past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Following that, Newcastle demonstrated some of the away day problems that have plagued at times this season. Only five minutes after drawing level, Eddie Howe’s side were behind again, with O’Reilly heading home his second. Erling Haaland, who is so often the scorer, turned provider to pick out O’Reilly in the middle.
Just before the interval, Newcastle again had the ball in the net. Dan Burn headed past Donnarumma which appeared to have brought the Magpies level again, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Replays then showed that Burn was physically pushed into an offside position by Rúben Dias. It begs the question as to why this incident was not looked at further? Anywhere else on the pitch a push of that nature would have brought a foul, so why not in this instance, especially given that it caused Burn to be offside from a cross he went on to score form?
The break brought changes from Manchester City, clearly keen to protect their lead. Perhaps Newcastle sensed that Pep Guardiola was slightly nervous about holding onto the win, because it was the visitors who had the ascendancy in the second period. It was Newcastle, who have for so long struggled at the Etihad, who were pushing forward and making Manchester City defend deep.
Emotions ran high for the Magpies, and they became increasingly incensed at decisions made by referee Thomas Bramall that went against them. They argued that Bernardo Silva should have seen a second yellow card for a foul on Dan Burn, as well as Bramall blowing his whistle for challenges on Manchester City players that appeared soft on first viewing. Of course, whilst there were frustrations, Newcastle knew they had to push past them and attempt to gain something from the game.
The question was could they find another goal? The answer was no they could not, but they certainly gave a great account of themselves, considering the long-distance midweek travelling they had endured. Despite the fatigue that would have undoubtedly crept in, the likes of Anthony Gordon, Joe Willock and Sandro Tonali all performed well and were unlucky to be on the losing side.
In what feels like an unrelenting period of the season, Newcastle are again in action on Tuesday evening, in the second leg of their Champions League tie against Qarabağ. Positively for Eddie Howe, such was the margin of their victory in Baku, they will likely be able to rotate a few players in this fixture to come, before they then face Everton at St. James’ Park a few days after that.