Key events
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.
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.)
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.
