Saturday’s match ended Manchester City 2 Newcastle 1.
Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the game.
Plenty to talk about after this Manchester City one!
A match that ebbed and flowed as both teams threatened, United unlucky to come away with nothing.
On this occasion it is ‘Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey…’:
POSITIVES
Decent Performance
Losing, so frustrating, but didn’t we give a very good account of ourselves?
Despite the jet lag, that was our best display at the Etihad in years, and there couldn’t have been too many complaints had we found a second equaliser, especially after an even better second half performance.
The huge celebrations from the home fans at the final whistle showed just what it meant to them.
There’s always the Cup
This isn’t a cliche, not this time at least.
In a fortnight we play this lot at St James’ Park in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Whilst we get nothing at the Etihad, in our last six meetings with Man City where we’ve had home advantage, we’ve only lost twice.
We owe this lot and I’m backing us to get through to the quarter finals.
Lewis Hall
Okay, it took a slight deflection, but what a strike from young Lewis.
He gets better and better. What a performance, take note Tommy Tuchel.
NEGATIVES
Varcical
I thought big Dan Burn had headed us level.
Then he’s judged to be offside, but only because he was shoved into an offside position by Dias, just before the ball was played in.
It feels unjust that a defender can force his opponent into an offside position in a way which would usually be a foul but receive no punishment for it.
Baffling….. even more so when I watched the edited highlights back this morning and it wasn’t there, the incident seemingly erased from the history books
Guardiola again
The Man City manager, able to continuously shell out and acquire the best talent with seeming impunity during his tenure with an uncalled for dig at Newcastle United, making reference to how we’ve improved since ‘Saudi Arabia took over the club’.
A cheap shot and one that was made without a hint of irony.
Could he have done the job Eddie Howe has done with the admittedly not insignificant, but let’s face it, only a fraction of the resources the Catalan has had at his disposal down the years?
I dont think so.
Leaving Etihad empty handed (again)
Another defeat at the stadium Man City were gifted and which had been built with public money at a cost of over £100 million and converted to accommodate football matches, another £30 million of public money defrayed in the process, in the aftermath of the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Seventeen consecutive league defeats at this place. Will this dismal run ever come to an end?