Man City 2 Newcastle 1
Big win for City that. City simply had to put pressure on Arsenal ahead of the North-London Derby tomorrow and that’s exactly they did this evening with an important 3 points against a Newcastle team in good form at the moment. Nico O’Reilly got City off to the perfect start after 14 minutes finishing low past Nick Pope to open the scoring for City. Just eight minutes later Newcastle equalised after Lewis Hall’s shot from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection to wrongfoot Donnarumma and bring Newcastle level in the 22nd minute. It didn’t take long for City to retake the lead after Haaland’s brilliant cross found O’Reilly who headed past Pope to put City 2-1 up just five minutes after Newcastle equalised. Newcastle continued looking dangerous on the counter but lacked that real end quality to worry City for the rest of the game. City managed the second half well and really should have killed the game off with Haaland, Foden and Ait-Nouri having big chances to put City 3-1 up, it didn’t matter in the end as City saw the game out to take the three points.
Nico O’Reilly has found his position in this Pep team. O’Reilly has been integral to Cities season thus far, whether he’s been playing at left-back, deep in midfield or a bit further forward like tonight you can always rely on him to put at least a 7/10 every week. He took his two goals brilliantly tonight breaking forward past the two City forwards and finishing so calm for someone who often plays as a full-back. I definitely see his future in this City team as a midfielder instead of a left-back as he has so much to offer going forward and offers City something different in the midfield that they currently don’t have in the squad. If he closes out the season strong he’ll be on that plane to the USA with the England squad barring any injuries, he’s simply to strong of an asset to leave at home in my opinion.
Not the end of the world for Newcastle. This was always going to be a tough game for Newcastle after playing in Azerbaijan on Wednesday but I thought they looked quite dangerous throughout the game without creating an abundance of clear-cut chances. Gordon and Elanga got in behind Cities backline quite a lot but just couldn’t find that pass or shot to trouble Donnarumma consistently. It’s easy to forget just how many players they’re missing at the minute with the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Tino Livramento, Yoane Wissa, Sven Botman and Fabian Schar all missing out, this does give opportunities to the likes of Jacob Ramsey and Joe Willock who played quite well in the game. Nick Pope does look a worry in the net though as I thought he probably should have saved that first goal from O’Reilly, obviously Eddie Howe doesn’t want to keep changing between Pope and Ramsdale but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Newcastle buy a new goalkeeper in the summer.
A Drogba-esque performance from Erling Haaland. Normally in a game were Erling Haaland doesn’t score you can say he didn’t offer much else throughout the game but you can’t say that about his performance tonight. He was a battering ram up there holding the ball up for Cities other attacking threats like Marmoush, O’Reilly and Semenyo and I thought his link-up play was yet again superb tonight like it’s been a number of times this season. The assist for O’Reilly’s second goal was superb and moves Haaland up to 7 assists in the league this season only behind Bruno Fernandes on 12 which is crazy considering his game is nearly solely focussed on scoring goals. His overall play has been so much improved this season on top of always being the top scorer in the league and it’s only going to get better with age in my opinion, a big few months ahead for Cities top scorer.
The gap narrows on Arsenal. The gap now to Arsenal is only 2 points with the North-London derby tomorrow that could take that gap back to 5 points if Arsenal win with City then having a game-in hand. Even if Arsenal win that game tomorrow the title will still be in Cities hands with Arsenal go to the Etihad in April, Cities next game is against Leeds at Elland Road which is never an easy game considering the form they are on at the minute. Arsenal play Spurs tomorrow then have Chelsea at the Emirates next week in what’s sure to be another fiery game between those two. That game tomorrow is massive for both sides but especially for Arsenal who look to bounce back from that collapse against Wolves a few days ago, all eyes will be in North London tomorrow.