I suppose now is as good a time as any to play Manchester City at the Etihad after they succumbed to their first league defeat of the season against Liverpool last week. Unsurprisingly, the odds are still stacked against us as we look to try and salvage something against a Manchester City side who have not lost at home in all competitions since December 2016. On top of the firepower of Man City, our record away at Man City, even before the bucket-loads of money came in, was not that glamorous however there was one win. A 1-0 win in the 2000/01 season saw Alan Shearer score the winning goal in September 2000.

In my view, I won’t be upset if we lose because we need to focus on getting wins against teams where we do have a realistic chance of winning. In the reverse fixture during the Chrimbo limbo period a few weeks ago, we appeared to gain confidence by frustrating the Citizens who were never totally sure of grabbing the three points until the final whistle blew. It was great that we made a game of it when many people wrote us off before a ball had been kicked.

Facts and Figures

All Competitions

Newcastle wins: 71

Man City wins: 66

Draws: 39

Premier League

Man City wins: 21

Newcastle wins: 7

Draws: 7

Premier League at Man City

Man City wins: 12

Draws: 4

Newcastle wins: 1

Previous ten (all competitions)

Man City wins: 8 (27 goals)

Newcastle wins: 1 (4 goals)

Draws: 1

Biggest win (in this fixture)

Man City 1 – 4 Newcastle United (26/12/1905)

Whilst defending our first ever first division title, we came up against Manchester City away on Boxing Day and created, what is still to this day, our biggest win at Manchester City. As the season concluded, our first title defence was unsuccessful as we finished fourth but we would go on to win the title again the following season. Man City, on the other hand, finished the season right behind us in fifth.

Biggest defeat (in this fixture)

Man City 5 – 0 Newcastle United (21/02/2015)

Man City 6 – 1 Newcastle United (03/10/2015)

After two consecutive humiliations at the Etihad, both of which coming in 2015, the two matches, for me, are unfortunately still rather fresh in the memory. A few weeks previous to the encounter in October 2015, I had just started university, befriended a big Man United fan (don’t worry, he is actually from Manchester) and we watched the scores come through on the Saturday afternoon. We were both massively buzzing after Aleksandar Mitrovic scored his first Newcastle goal to give us an unexpected lead. As for the rest of the afternoon, I remained silent not that anyone could hear me with my head in my hands.

I will finish this article on a lighter note and look back on a visit to Maine Road back in January 1957. This match is the highest scoring encounter between the two sides at Man City as Newcastle ended up on the right end of a 5-4 thriller in an FA Cup replay. An interesting early tie in the competition considering the two teams reached the final of the same competitions two seasons previous.