Man City 1 Newcastle 0
Pep Guardiola’s treble winners had seen some changes over the summer, the departure of the likes of Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez along with the recent devastating news that Kevin De Bruyne is likely to be out for six months due to a hamstring injury.
Man City welcomed Eddie Howe’s Newcastle to the Etihad Stadium with many questioning whether these two teams would be competing for the title this season, The Magpies on the back of a convincing 5-1 win over Aston Villa in their first game of the season.
In the early stages of the game, Ruben Dias was not happy with a challenge from Anthony Gordon that went unnoticed with the referee, replays showing that the Newcastle winger raked down the back of the defender’s Achilles. It earned Gordon a retrospective yellow card.
Kovacic picked the ball up in the centre of the park and threaded it through to Foden, he checked his run and passed to Alvarez, who took one touch and drilled his shot passed Nick Pope. City took the lead on the half hour mark after what had been a tentative affair up until this point.
Credit: @ManCity
Sometimes Man City mix their game up and will go direct and a ball from Ederson picked out Alvarez on the left wing, he found Foden who played a perfect pass into the path of goal machine Haaland who hit his shot first time. The Norwegian didn’t even look where the goal was, such is his confidence, but his effort went inches wide of the far post.
Newcastle started the second half looking like a different team and were passing around the ball with confidence with Trippier finding Joelinton, who then played it to Gordon on the edge of the box. A neat turn by the ex-Everton man saw him beat Walker but his left-footed shot was way off target.
The Magpies were beginning to ask questions of Pep’s defence and as Dias cleared the ball, Gordon slid in to challenge for it, leaving the defender rolling around on the floor in pain. VAR checked the incident, with the referee having taken no action, and as ever agreed with the onfield decision. Eddie Howe could see a storm brewing with Gordon already on a yellow card so decided to bring the winger off, replacing him with Harvey Barnes.
Tonali and Isak had struggled to make an impact in the game and were substituted for Wilson and Anderson. Rodri then made an uncharacteristic mistake as he gifted it Wilson, but as he ran towards goal with three attackers against one defender, he made the wrong choice by trying to beat his man.
Almiron and Anderson were screaming for the pass as they were completely unmarked to his right. Wilson eventually got the ball to Barnes who tried his luck from just outside the box, but it was a routine save for Ederson in the City goal.
Haaland then turned provider as he ran forward with the ball, waiting for the overlapping run from Foden before playing a pass into him. The tricky midfielder took it into the box and shot from a tight angle but forced Pope into another save with his feet.
Credit: @premierleague
At times in this game it was like somebody had told Pope that he was the ‘back-in-hand’ keeper so was not allowed to use his hands. One thing is for sure, he can use those gloves again next week, they must be in ‘like new’ condition.
Newcastle received five bookings in the game where their players tried to go in hard on 50/50 challenges but Man City were always just first to the ball, resulting in their players getting clattered. Eddie Howe will feel they went toe-to-toe with the champions but this side looks very different without their Belgian talisman, despite Phil Foden putting in a man of the match performance, Pep Guardiola’s side did not look as potent.
Something for the Spanish manager to consider before that transfer window closes. Erling Haaland had a goalless game, unable to perform to his usual high levels, Guardiola walked off with his arm around him at the end of the game consoling him like a girlfriend telling him ‘it’s quite common’.
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