As Pep exits looking super-stern, we bring an end to our coverage. Louise Taylor’s match report is below. Thanks for reading this MBM.
Pep Guardiola talks to Sky Sports. “Tight game … chances … entertaining game … [our performance] was really good … unfortunately we could not finish … it was good … keep going.”
… and what was that post-match rumpus with Bruno Guimarães about? “I said how good he is … a private situation … everything is fine.”
Eddie Howe – who in addition to his first victory over City, is also celebrating his 100th win as Newcastle manager – speaks to Sky Sports. “It’s been a long wait against Pep … he’s an incredible manager … we’re just delighted to win … heart, endeavour and attitude … compare that to our performance against Brentford when we looked tired and flat … very pleased … it should give us a massive lift in what is a very tough Premier League season … the quality of teams are so strong … Harvey [Barnes] is an outstanding player … always a goal threat … it’s good to see him in really good form.”
As for what the post-match brouhaha was all about: “I’ve got no idea! Perhaps someone can tell me!”
Louise Taylor was at St James’ Park tonight, and her report is in. Here it is … but don’t forget to return once you’ve read it, because there’s still some managerial reaction to come.
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Harvey Barnes speaks to Sky Sports. “Big result for us … one we definitely needed after a few poor results … what a game to be involved in … a bit of a mad one … a few big chances missed … myself to blame in the first half! … we came out firing again … a massive three points … if you dwell [on missed chances] it’s going to affect your performance … bounce back and there’s glory at the end of it … it was forget and move on.”
He’s also asked about the possibility of his playing for Scotland at the World Cup. After initially feigning headphone issues and pretending he never heard the question, to gales of laughter in the Sky studio, he says: “That’s obviously not on my mind at the minute … there is a long way to go until the summer … the club form hasn’t been there so the team has been my only focus.” The straightest of straight bats.
That’s only Newcastle United’s second league win over Manchester City in the last 36 meetings … and Eddie Howe’s first against the club as a manager at his 19th attempt … and it’s a huge result at both ends of the table. Newcastle extricate themselves from a relegation-adjacent situation into something closer to mid-table comfort, while Manchester City pass up the chance to go back into second place. Arsenal are now in a position to further extend their lead at the top in tomorrow’s north-London derby. (City extend their run of scoring in consecutive matches against Newcastle to 34 games, and that’s now the joint-third longest sequence in English league history, but that’s not much of a consolation tonight, really, is it? But it is a stat, so there it is.)
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 11 | 15 | 26 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 12 | 12 | 23 |
| 3 | Man City | 12 | 14 | 22 |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | 12 | 7 | 20 |
| 5 | Brighton | 12 | 3 | 19 |
| 6 | Sunderland | 12 | 3 | 19 |
| 7 | AFC Bournemouth | 12 | -1 | 19 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 9 | 18 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 11 | 3 | 18 |
| 10 | Man Utd | 11 | 1 | 18 |
| 11 | Liverpool | 12 | -2 | 18 |
| 12 | Brentford | 12 | -1 | 16 |
| 13 | Everton | 11 | -1 | 15 |
| 14 | Newcastle | 12 | -2 | 15 |
| 15 | Fulham | 12 | -3 | 14 |
| 16 | Nottm Forest | 12 | -7 | 12 |
| 17 | West Ham | 12 | -10 | 11 |
| 18 | Leeds | 11 | -10 | 11 |
| 19 | Burnley | 12 | -10 | 10 |
| 20 | Wolverhampton | 12 | -20 | 2 |
Pep doesn’t take the loss well. He goes up to referee Sam Barrott and presses a finger into his chest in the and-another-thing bar-room philosopher style. The ref tells him to bugger off, more or less. Joelinton meanwhile looks like he fancies a trenchant back-and-forth of his own. Eddie Howe grabs his player by the arm and encourages him to calm down. And then a passionate exchange of views between Pep and Bruno Guimaraes. This meant something all right. Meanwhile Harvey Barnes, the hero of the day, smiles beatifically. As delighted as Guardiola is irritated.
FULL TIME: Newcastle United 2-1 Manchester City
To hell with the stats! A huge win for Newcastle United, Eddie Howe and Harvey Barnes!
90 min +8: Dias sends the ball long into the Newcastle box. O’Reilly heads it harmlessly wide right. Newcastle – and Eddie Howe – so close now!
90 min +7: The ball is back in Donnarumma’s hands. Newcastle happy to see it there. “Thiaw is a real Rolls Royce centre-back,” writes Chris Paraskevas. “Simple but classy. If we can get over the line he can take a huge chunk of the credit.”
90 min +6: Newcastle half-clear the corner. Reijnders crosses again from the right. Thiaw swishes clear. City send the ball back in, but Schar is skittled, and the whistle goes. On the touchline, Pep Guardiola engages the fourth official in philosophical debate.
90 min +5: Bobb skips past Murphy with elegant ease down the right, and wins a corner. Marmoush to swing it in.
90 min +4: Joelinton picks up a booking for the team, stopping an in-flight Savinho in the cynical style.
90 min +3: Newcastle have shipped seismic last-gasp goals here against Liverpool and Arsenal. Can they hold out this time?
90 min +2: Reijnders wins City another corner down the left. Marmoush takes this one long. There’s some pinball. Bobb shapes to shoot, but he’s surrounded and can’t get anything away. Tonali scuttles off with the ball, and Bobb, desperate to make amends, brings his man down. Into the book he goes.
90 min +1: Eddie Howe is now seven minutes away from his first-ever league victory over Manchester City.
90 min: There will be a minimum of eight additional minutes. No great surprise, given all that VAR nonsense.
89 min: Savinho wins a corner for City down the left. He and Marmoush then make a hash of a short-corner routine, and Murphy races off with the ball to once again release the pressure.
87 min: That’s Foden’s last action of the evening. He’s replaced by Marmoush, who scored a 14-minute hat-trick against Newcastle back in February.
86 min: A Foden corner comes in from the right. It drops to Savinho, who lashes wildly over the bar. For a second, a carbon copy of the Dias goal looked on the cards.
85 min: There’ll be no hat-trick for Barnes, as he’s replaced by Elanga. Willock also comes on, for Woltemade. “These onside-or-off-by-a-fingernail endless VAR reviews are turning what used to be an entertaining sport into more of an exercise in quantity surveying,” observes Justin Kavanagh, and he’s not wrong.
84 min: Tonali thinks he’s won a corner off Gvardiol, but the officials think otherwise. Tonali descends into a mild fume.
82 min: Guimaraes steams down the middle and attempts to release Barnes, on a hat-trick, down the inside-left channel. Nunes puts a stop to Newcastle’s gallop with a perfectly executed sliding tackle. That had to be timed just so, or it’d have been a penalty and red card.
80 min: City pin Newcastle back, and pass, and probe, and pass, and probe. But the home side hold their shape, and there’s no way through. For now, at least. Eventually Newcastle nick the ball back, and Tonali draws a foul to release the pressure.
78 min: Newcastle make their first change, Botman coming on for Hall.
77 min: City make a triple change. Doku, Silva and Cherki are replaced by Savinho, Reijnders and Bobb.
76 min: Donnarumma was booked during the VAR check, incidentally, for telling it as he saw it.
75 min: Guimaraes sends Tonali down the left flank. He’s got Murphy free in the middle, but a combination of a heavy touch and O’Reilly’s persistence puts paid to the attack.
74 min: … but the goal stands! St James’ Park celebrates the goal for a second time.
73 min: A long, long look.
72 min: VAR are having a good look at this goal. Was there an offside in there? A long look.
GOAL! Newcastle United 2-1 Manchester City (Barnes 70)
… Woltemade battles to win a header at the far stick. He sends the ball back across the face of goal, left to right. Guimaraes, aiming for the top-right corner, heads against the bar. The ball drops to Barnes, who with his back to goal, brings it under control before dispatching it from close range with a cute back-flicked finish!
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69 min: Now it’s Newcastle’s turn to look for a response. Barnes wins a corner down the left. Tonali takes one, then another, and the second one nearly curls directly into the top right! Gvardiol clears off the line. But the defender’s heroics are all in vain, because when Murphy crosses from the right …
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GOAL! Newcastle United 1-1 Manchester City (Dias 68)
Newcastle fail to clear the corner, which comes in from the left. Doku crosses from the right. Foden tries again from the left. The ball breaks to Dias, who shoots through a crowded box and into the bottom right, Pope wrong-footed and unable to react. City weren’t behind for long!
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67 min: Doku tries to fashion a City response with a dribble down the left. He earns a corner off Thiaw. And from the resulting set piece …
65 min: Barnes started that move, too. It was his little flick that set Guimaraes on his way. So many easy chances have been missed this evening; of course it’s taken something rather special to break the deadlock.
GOAL! Newcastle United 1-0 Manchester City (Barnes 63)
Out of nothing! Guimaraes battles his way down the inside-left channel and lays off to Barnes, who from the edge of the D whips a first-time shot across Donnarumma and into the bottom left! What a lovely finish!
Updated
62 min: Foden cuts in from the right and clears the bar by some considerable distance. Well wide, too. City have now taken 12 shots, but only three have been on target.
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61 min: Any instructions issued during the half-time break clearly weren’t given with entertainment uppermost in mind. This is strangely underwhelming when compared with the banger of a first half.
59 min: Foden dinks a cross in from the left. Haaland wins a header, but can’t generate any power and Pope snaffles with ease.
57 min: Murphy is sent striding down the right. He curls low for Woltemade, who slams a first-time shot straight at Donnarumma, the ball ballooning over the bar. Another big miss! The flag pops up for offside, but VAR might have had something to say about that had Woltemade found the net. It’s all moot.
55 min: Cherki reaches the byline down the City right, but his cutback is easily snaffled by Pope. This second half hasn’t quite got going.
53 min: Tonali barges into the back of Doku out on the City left. City take an absolute age over the resulting free kick, and it’s not worth waiting for.
51 min: A scrappy couple of minutes. The crowd falls quiet as a result.
49 min: Silva skates in from the right and curls powerfully towards the top-left corner. High and wide, but only by inches.
48 min: After that near miss, City establish some control by passing it around the back. Then suddenly Haaland springs into action down the inside right. He drops a shoulder and tries to breeze past Thiaw, but the defender stands firm, making a clean block challenge inside the box. That’s fine defending, and perfectly timed. It had to be.
Updated
46 min: Tonali’s corner sails through a crowded six-yard box and out for a goal kick. Any touch by a player from either side and that was in the net. How did it miss everyone?! It’s been that sort of evening so far.
45 min 14 sec: Newcastle again start the half quickly, Barnes scuttling down the left and winning a corner in short order. And then …
Newcastle get the second half underway. They’re kicking towards the Gallowgate now. No changes in personnel.
Half-time advertisement. The Guardian has kicked off a new chapter in puzzles with the launch of its first daily football game, On the ball. It is now live in the app for both iOS and Android … so what are you waiting for?
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HALF TIME: Newcastle United 0-0 Manchester City
It could easily be 3-3, 3-0, 0-3 or anything in between. But here we are. Some big misses, some strange officiating, plenty of fun. More please!
45 min +1: Guimaraes clatters Gonzales out on the City left. Everyone lines up on the edge of the Toon box. Everyone expects Foden to swing one into the mixer, but he slips the free kick down the inside-left channel instead. There’s too much juice on the pass and Pope collects.
45 min: There will be two additional first-half minutes.
44 min: Doku dribbles dangerously down the left and cuts back for Haaland, who swivels in mid-air, sending the ball looping over the bar. Goodness knows how this game is still goalless.
42 min: Dias splits Newcastle’s defence with a pass down the inside-right channel for Foden, who one-twos with Cherki on his outside, then sidefoots wide left when free on the penalty spot. Yet another big miss when you’d surely have put all of your money on the net bulging! Lovely move, though.
40 min: Haaland takes down a long ball on the halfway line and spins Schar, who brings him down. Again, you’d expect a booking; again, there’s no booking. This is becoming an extended free-jazz riff on the laws of the game.
38 min: Livramento is causing City quite a few problems out on the right. Now he feeds Murphy into space along the touchline; Murphy wins a corner off Gvardiol. Tonali sends it in, but his delivery fails to beat the first man. City clear. Hall tries to resurrect the move, but only manages to float the ball into Donnarumma’s arms.
36 min: Doku drives down the inside-left channel and feeds O’Reilly ahead. O’Reilly cuts back for Haaland, who should score … but slams his first-time shot from eight yards straight into Pope’s chest! Another big miss. Newcastle attempt to counter, and Gvardiol almost rugby-tackles Woltemade. You’d expect a booking, but it’s just a free kick. There have been some pretty strange refereeing decisions in this match.
34 min: Newcastle half clear the corner, then Cherki slashes wide left from the edge of the D.
33 min: … Hall heads behind under pressure from Haaland. Foden to deliver again.
32 min: What a miss, though. City go up the other end, Nunes winning a corner down the right off Schar, from which …
31 min: Murphy is sent skittering down the right by Livramento. He crosses low for Barnes, who surely can’t miss from six yards … but slams his sidefooted shot wide left! What an astonishing miss! No offside flag to save his blushes, though had Barnes scored, VAR would have had to get the old rulers out to check both the defence-splitting pass and cross.
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30 min: Barnes probes down the left and curls into the mixer. City clear their lines again. Newcastle are giving as good as they’re getting.
28 min: Livramento barges his way down the right and wins a corner off Gvardiol. He takes a whack for his trouble. Eventually he gets back up. Hall takes the set piece … and Haaland slashes it clear. Some frustration in the crowd.
26 min: Another big chance for Woltemade, released down the middle. He aims for the bottom left but again Donnarumma comes to the rescue. Another fine save, the City man’s second one-on-one triumph of the match.
25 min: Woltemade clips Cherki in the midfield. This is getting a bit scrappy, though nobody’s losing their temper yet.
23 min: … so both teams have legitimate grievances regarding possible penalty kicks. Throw in a couple of big chances, and somewhere in the multiverse it’s 2-2.
21 min: Doku cuts in from the left and shoots. The ball hits Thiaw on his arm, which is slightly raised. No penalty. Some more material for Howard Webb to riff on in next week’s edition of Whose Law Is It Anyway?
19 min: Schar definitely caught Foden on the top of the boot. Foden had already got his shot away, but that shouldn’t make any difference. It was a late challenge and a foul … but for some reason VAR clears it. No intervention. Stick with the on-field decision. Nobody knows anything any more, partly because of Howard Webb’s performances on that comedy-improv TV show of his.
17 min: Doku dribbles at full pelt down the middle, then lays off to Haaland on his left. Haaland enters the area only for his shot to be blocked instantly by Livramento. Then City come again, Foden entering the box down the inside-right channel, his shot flying wide right. He’s caught late by Schar on the ankle, and this could be a penalty. VAR to check.
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15 min: Gonzalez has a nibble at Guimaraes in the centre circle. The whistle goes for a foul, which irritates Newcastle further as Joelinton was in the process of making good down the middle with the loose ball. The referee not making friends with the home supporters.
13 min: Hall barrels into the City box down the left. He’s gently nudged from behind by Dias and loses the run of his legs. He goes down in a tangle, and wants a penalty. You’ve seen them given for less, but the referee points for a goal kick. The home fans are not happy. Neither is Hall.
12 min: Barnes feeds Hall on the overlap down the left. Gvardiol clears a deep cross with Woltemade lurking. Then play’s switched to the right. Murphy whips in a cross and Woltemade plants a downward header towards the bottom-right corner. Donnarumma gets down to parry and City clear their lines. Great play all round.
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10 min: A Sky Sports stats bomb: City have already made 76 passes to Newcastle’s 11.
9 min: It’s probably for the best that City didn’t score from that corner. They were generously given a second chance to take it, after Schar had been pushed over amid a six-yard-box melee. Newcastle thought they should have had a free kick, with some justification, but the referee opted to deliver a lecture on pushing and shoving instead. Slightly strange.
7 min: … Cherki jinks in from the left and pearls a low drive towards the bottom left. Pope is behind it all the way.
6 min: Doku looks for Haaland again, down the inside-left channel. The striker wins a corner off Livramento, from which …
5 min: City are kicking towards the Gallowgate End in this first half. “The fact that unless they win Newcastle will be below Fulham is both implausible and an indication of how badly wrong Newcastle’s season has gone,” writes Richard Hirst, “given that own goals are likely to be Fulham’s top scorer come the end of the season.”
4 min: … so already we’ve got a pretty good sense that this game isn’t going to end goalless.
2 min: Barnes should have scored …. and the same can be said for Haaland, sent clear down the middle by Doku’s pass! Haaland attempts to float a chip over Pope, who rushes out of his box, doing enough to put his man off. Haaland’s chip bounces harmlessly wide left of goal.
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25 seconds: Donnarumma gets away with a dreadful pass out from the back. Joelinton nips in ahead of Foden, who didn’t want the ball, and pokes to Barnes. The Newcastle winger, on the left-hand edge of the D, aims for the bottom right but his curler is weak and the keeper makes amends. What a start that could have been!
Eddie Howe and Pep Guardiola greet each other warmly, then Manchester City kick off. A huge roar from the St James’ Park faithful. Oh me lads.
The teams are out! Newcastle wear their famous black and white stripes, City sport their equally storied sky blue. We’ll be off after a few bars of this …
… while everyone’s favourite Toon fan from Down Under, MBM regular Chris Paraskevas, writes: “I’m certainly not buying into the panic over league form that leaves us potentially in a relegation battle with Liverpool. It’s a long season ahead. Many twists and turns. Eddie will get it right: we just need to keep the faith! PS. England fans dealing with sleep deprivation and psychological trauma, I know how you feel on a weekly basis. (Not really, Australia almost always win.)”
Eddie Howe’s turn to speak to Sky. “We love playing here … our home record is really good … we are confident here … we want to try to express ourselves in the right way … certainly we have a lot of work to do in the Premier League to get back to our very best consistently … the team has to function really well to limit [Erling Haaland’s] space and the potential damage he can do to us … our technical delivery has to be really high … we certainly have some really good technical players on show today … it was a two-week break … much needed to refocus our mindset … we will attack these games we have … a really busy spell between now and the end of January … unrelenting but also really exciting … a lot of different challenges to come.”
Howe also reports that Kieran Trippier has a “very minor hamstring issue”.
Pep Guardiola talks to Sky Sports. “Now the real season starts … no international breaks … every two, three days … everybody will be involved … [Newcastle] are an aggressive team … quality … speed … so aggressive … defend compact … transition … a top Champions League team … Eddie [Howe] has created a fantastic team.”
The Premier League table has a brand-new look as a result of all the earlier kick-offs. Chelsea have leapfrogged Manchester City into second place after their 2-0 win at Burnley, though City can reclaim that position by winning or drawing this evening. Newcastle have also been knocked down one place, from 14th to 15th, thanks to Fulham’s 1-0 win over Sunderland. Like City, they’ve got a chance to get back to where they started the day, but they’ll need to win this match to do so. Tim de Lisle has all the details of the 3pms in today’s Clockwatch.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 11 | 15 | 26 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 12 | 12 | 23 |
| 3 | Man City | 11 | 15 | 22 |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | 12 | 7 | 20 |
| 5 | Brighton | 12 | 3 | 19 |
| 6 | Sunderland | 12 | 3 | 19 |
| 7 | AFC Bournemouth | 12 | -1 | 19 |
| 8 | Tottenham Hotspur | 11 | 9 | 18 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 11 | 3 | 18 |
| 10 | Man Utd | 11 | 1 | 18 |
| 11 | Liverpool | 12 | -2 | 18 |
| 12 | Brentford | 12 | -1 | 16 |
| 13 | Everton | 11 | -1 | 15 |
| 14 | Fulham | 12 | -3 | 14 |
| 15 | Newcastle | 11 | -3 | 12 |
| 16 | Nottm Forest | 12 | -7 | 12 |
| 17 | West Ham | 12 | -10 | 11 |
| 18 | Leeds | 11 | -10 | 11 |
| 19 | Burnley | 12 | -10 | 10 |
| 20 | Wolverhampton | 12 | -20 | 2 |
Manchester City have won their last four matches in all competitions to the cumulative score of 13-3. No wonder Pep is in the mood to crack wise with a few zingers. Will Unwin reports.
Newcastle United make three changes to their starting XI after the 3-1 defeat at Brentford. Tino Livramento, Fabian Schär and Lewis Hall replace the injured Kieran Trippier, the suspended Dan Burn, and the benched Sven Botman.
Manchester City are very much in If It Ain’t Broke mode following their 3-0 dispatch of Liverpool. They name an unchanged side.
The teams
Newcastle United: Pope, Livramento, Thiaw, Schar, Hall, Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, Woltemade, Barnes.
Subs: Ruddy, Ramsdale, Botman, Elanga, Willock, Alex Murphy, Ramsey, Miley, Neave.
Manchester City: Donnarumma, Matheus Luiz, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Silva, Gonzalez, Foden, Cherki, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Ait Nouri, Savio, Khusanov, Bobb.
Referee: Sam Barrott.
VAR: Craig Pawson.
Updated
Preamble
Newcastle have won just one (!) of their last 35 (!!!jesuswept!!!) league meetings with Manchester City, losing 28 of them, while their manager Eddie Howe’s personal league record against the club is P18 D2 L16. There’s really no other way to frame this, is there? Godspeed, Magpie Nation.
Not wishing to further harsh what remains of Newcastle’s pre-match buzz, but City have scored in every one of their last 33 league matches against them. That’s not good, which is an eagle-eyed observation snapped into even sharper focus by the fact that only three sides in English top-flight history have bettered such a run against the same opponent, and two of those have been against … well, look …
Chelsea v Newcastle United: 37 games between 1933 and 1969
Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United: 35 games between 1922 and 1961
Everton v Blackburn Rovers: 34 games between 1925 and 1962
Oh Newcastle! You really need to kick this habit. Starting tonight? Well, the Toon have lost their last two league games, while Erling Haaland already has 14 goals domestically this season – and 32 in 20 overall – so, once again, godspeed. Any members of the Toon Army, whose blood may be boiling upon reading the contents of this preamble, can thank us later if we’ve tempted the Football Gods into something that skews the stats, bordering on seismic. Kick-off is at 5.30pm GMT, and Nick Woltemade had better lace up his shooting boots this evening, is all we’re saying. It’s on!
