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Oscar Bobb scored a stoppage-time winner to secure Manchester City’s three points at Newcastle in another important Premier League win for Pep Guardiola’s side.
In a thrilling and frenetic game at St James’ Park, Bernardo Silva gave City the lead with a sublimely taken goal in the first half, only for three minutes of madness to turn the contest on its head.
Twice City were outplayed by balls over the top, with Alexander Isak and then Anthony Gordon exploiting the box behind, but either received Kyle Walker’s biggest too softly to cut inside and finish in style.
The Blues, however, dominated the second half and eventually equalised when Kevin De Bruyne scored his first goal of the season, just four minutes after coming off the bench for his first Premier League appearance since the first weekend of the season. They lend a hand to the winner of Bobb.
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In the end, it’s the Manchester City fans who can be heard from the Leazes stand at St James’ Park. “That’s why we’re champions,” they shouted at the end of a wild afternoon at Tyneside.
At times, City’s defence of that crown failed at Newcastle. But two goals in the last 20 minutes turned a thrilling game into a match. The celebrations that greeted Oscar winner Bobb speak volumes about the magnitude of this win.
It was reminiscent of City’s last away game, that comeback at Goodison Park just after Christmas. That turnaround in the second half was more routine, but as it was, it showed the character of the champions and a team desperate to make history with a fourth straight goal. title.
When Bobb picked up Kevin De Bruyne’s pass and showed quick feet into the back of the net, City’s bench erupted. Bernardo Silva danced down the pitch to point to Newcastle’s fourth official or bench. Maybe both. City had been frustrated by Newcastle’s time-wasting and Bernardo waved three fingers, pointing to the limited stoppage time that was being played against the hosts lately.
The final whistle sparked celebrations similar to those we saw in front of the away pitch or those we saw at Everton. City have some issues to deal with, but based on this evidence, they are not going to give up their crown easily. In their last away game, at Luton just over a month ago, he also saw them come from behind at half-time. They are only the fourth team in Premier League history to do so 3 times in a row.
With the rest of St James’ Park empty 10 minutes after the final whistle, you might still hear “champions again” echoing outside. Don’t bet against it.
We now know that Julian Alvarez will most likely play at least two more games as City’s centre-forward, with the news that Erling Haaland will miss games against Tottenham and Burnley. You’d be interested in making them count.
It’s hard to dispute the theory that Alvarez has had a good season so far, playing far more often than this term and benefitting from the long-term absence of De Bruyne. But at the same time, his limitations were on show at St James’ Park.
It was far from City’s best performance, but they created chances. Lots of opportunities. They ended up firing 27 shots at Martin Dubravka’s goal. Alvarez was guilty of six of them and scored. You’re sure Haaland would have done it.
It hasn’t escaped Kyle Walker’s receiving complaints from his assistants this season, but in a campaign that has seen him gain acceptance and help from his teammates as a leader, his form has plummeted.
There may be understandable reasons for this off the field and you’re also being asked to do a lot of work. He was pushed up and open at Newcastle, offering width down the right as Phil Foden moved into the infield to shape a narrow attack. , with Jeremy Doku also betting internally.
Walker has played that role a lot lately, however, he struggled to defend in the first half against a lively Newcastle side, who were impressive in the way they won the ball back and then looked to exploit City’s area. early ball into the box around Walker.
But in City’s quick first-half double, Walker had shown his speed to come back against Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon, but he didn’t do enough to stop them. They both cut Walker too softly and had room to shoot. Both finished brilliantly, however, the captain may have done more to prevent them.
It was Doku’s first start for City in six weeks, but in a sense it didn’t look like he was absent. The £55m Belgian picked up where he left off with that skill on the ball.
Doku has been an unforeseen revelation this season and his straightforward taste has City fans extremely happy, with Guardiola content to settle for his dribbling, which he has so craved in recent years. He ran a lot at St James’ Park.
But it isn’t just Doku’s dribbling that catches the eye, as electrifying as it can sometimes be. He picked up some really intelligent positions at times against Newcastle and his passing often opened up the defence. His role in the first goal was particularly eye-catching, showing his skill to keep the ball under pressure and find a yard of space, before a really smart pass out wide to Walker.
The explanation for why Guardiola has liked wingers who will decide the extra pass and keep the ball is the danger he poses to his team when that player loses it. That happened with Doku in the northeast, especially with Newcastle’s second-place finisher. They took the ball away from them, temporarily looked for the ball over the more sensible and that caused countless defensive disorders in City.
In a way, this game summed up the debate between Doku and Jack Grealish. Doku can contribute a lot to City’s attack, but he can also provoke it in the opposite direction.
In a match played at the speed of the latter and in the frenzy of St James’ Park at its peak, moments of brilliance above the maelstrom and that is precisely what Bernardo Silva contributed to open the scoring.
It was an adorable City goal, involving Doku and Walker, but time seemed to slow down as Bernardo approached the ball, kicked it with his right heel and saw it roll delicately into the far corner, past the desperate Martin Dubravka.
No one wants to discover the enduring qualities of City’s Portuguese midfielder, but his qualities are worth reflecting on wherever he plays. He spent much of this game in the middle as Pep Guardiola looked to prevent Newcastle from breaking, but when he had the ball he seemed to have a moment more compared to everyone else on the pitch.
For the second time in less than a month City have lost a key player to an injury picked up for making a challenge that didn’t matter. John Stones’ latest injury came when making a tackle against Everton when the play could have been stopped for offside and Ederson’s leg injury against Newcastle was in identical circumstances.
This offside decision was certainly closer, but it was still offside. Ederson had to commit to try and stop Sean Longstaff’s finish and the injury he picked up in doing so forced him off. It almost lead to City conceding before that, with Ederson clearly struggling when the ball was played back to him and Bruno Guimaraes missing with the goalkeeper out of the picture.
It is difficult to know what the solution to those injuries is, however, players and coaches have warned since the advent of VAR that assistant referees keeping their flags down would cause the player to be injured. Now it has happened twice in 4 opposite matches to the same thing. club.
City’s frustrations at this kind of misfortune would have been exacerbated by the failure to send off Bruno Guimaraes for a transparent moment of caution in first-half stoppage time.