Life without Rodri begins for City with a difficult 1-1 draw away at Newcastle
Manchester City faced a tough battle at St James Park against Newcastle United in the early kick off on Saturday. Just a day earlier it was confirmed that City’s star midfielder Rodri would miss the rest of the season with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury. As well as this, the blues also travelled without Kevin De Bruyne, who’s recovery date is unclear therefore in missing these two players, City had a potential psychological disadvantage to start. On the other hand, Newcastle were without a crucial player in Alexander Isak, who was absent from their squad through injury.
The match began with early pressure from Newcastle, who pressed the City goal with intent, it appeared the blues defence were having to work extra hard against the Newcastle press as opposed to enjoying their usual possession, but this early onslaught lasted for about 10 minutes before City were able to become more comfortable in possession and somewhat control the game.
Erling Haaland appeared to be having a rare off day, with various attempts being saved by Nick Pope albeit some difficult passes from the midfield. Ilkay Gundogan also struggled to find the goal too, blazing a shot wide and completely misconnecting with the ball to send it over the bar.
Despite these frustrating moments, City’s possession would eventually go on to reward them when Jack Grealish dribbled past Kieran Trippier and turned and passed the ball to Josko Gvardiol who controlled the ball and cooly finished in the right-hand side of the goal to give the blues the lead in 35 minutes.
In the moments after the goal, City had the chance to extend their lead when the Newcastle goalkeeper and defence were caught stranded and found themselves in a 2v2 against Haaland and Gundogan. Gundogan went for the spectacular but once again had no luck and the ball was picked up by pope. A further miscalculated pass towards Haaland continued to frustrate City.
The half closed with a dangerous shot from Newcastle’s Joelinton which was parried behind by Ederson. The subsequent corner was headed away by Haaland and the half closed with City leading 1-0.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, with Newcastle eager to attack and get back on level terms. A potential penalty call was dismissed when Harvey Barnes went down in the box claiming to be fouled. Despite this, Newcastle still had plenty of momentum, with the home crowd ushering them on. In the 55th minute, Anthony Gordon was through on goal 1v1 with Ederson, Gordon attempted to dribble past Ederson but was caught by the goalkeeper and brought down and a penalty was given and a yellow card for Ederson. Despite City appeals claiming that there was not enough contact and that Gordon had dived, the penalty stood.
Gordon sent Ederson the wrong way and converted the penalty to level the score and it was certainly game on with half an hour left, Newcastle ultimately having the advantage by this point.
In the 61st minute there was yet another penalty call with a challenge on Joelinton by Walker, but this time there was no penalty given despite VAR checks and Newcastle appeals. Barnes had an attempt denied by Ederson in a frenzy of attacks by the Geordies. The blues seemed to be on the ropes.
Eventually changes were made for City with Foden coming on for Gundogan and Doku and Savinho being brought on for Rico Lewis and Bernardo Silva. City regained concentration and began to attack more in search for a late winner but Newcastle’s defence remained strong and managed to keep out the blues. In the 7 minutes of injury time Mateo Kovacic missed an attempt and a cross in from Savinho to Haaland was straight at the goalkeeper. The full-time whistle blew and the blues were left frustrated once more.
City have now dropped 4 points and were later that day ousted from the top spot by Liverpool who won 2-1 against Wolves. Arsenal also seem to be creeping up on City, level on points with just one goal separating them on goal difference. With Rodri out and De Bruyne still injured, all eyes will be turning to Pep to see what solution may be proposed to get City back to winning ways having suffered consecutive draws in the league.