It was one of the best first-halves of football we’ve seen this season on Saturday as Newcastle hosted the reigning champions Man City. 

Newcastle were playing on the counterattack with speed and Man City were failing to contain them regardless of trying to do the same thing with Doku. But with so many injuries Howe doesn’t have the backups he would like on the bench, so towards the end of the game his players were feeling the strain and City were able to take control.

This happened vs Liverpool when they allowed through balls to cut their midfield wide open, dismantling Newcastle’s defensive 5 man midfield. This happened again against City allowing them to become dangerous.

Newcastle should have gone in front at the start of the game but Isak ran into an offside position, meaning it was ruled out when he squared it to Longstaff who found the net. Then it was City who did get the first goal of the game, when Kyle Walker crossed into Bernardo Silva and a bit of magic happened with the finish to find the bottom corner.

Newcastle showed their threat on the counter next, with Isak making the run and then curling the ball into the far corner to make it 1-1. Man City barely had time to reset before Anthony Gordon charged forward again on the counter, with a shot that looked similar to Isak’s to find the same far corner.

In the second half Man City were patient, and when Kevin De Bruyne came on you could see the extra danger he was bringing to the game. It wasn’t long into his return from injury when he placed the ball through the defender’s legs and into the bottom corner to make it 2-2. He was the danger man again late on when he put a stunning pass through to Oscar Bobb who finished nicely to clinch the points for City.

The result knocked Newcastle back to 10th in the table, and it’s the difference in depth that is causing the difference, as Newcastle don’t have a De Bruyne on the bench, especially with so many injuries in the squad.

Meanwhile Man City are charging to the top of the table and Liverpool and Arsenal are doing their best to keep them from becoming the first team to win 4 Premier League titles in a row. #mmlove