Newcastle were defeated 3-1 at the Ethiad by Manchester City on Saturday. unlike the reverse fixture there was times where the toon were actually trying to get a result against top-of-the-table City, but City's might was no match for now 15th place Newcastle.
Lineup
Match (First Half)
For the majority of the first half Newcastle played as they did in the reverse fixture which was extremely defensive, hanging on to 0-0 for as long as possible, Gayle had a chance at a header early on but was out-jumped before Joselu drived the ball into the ground. Aside from that, it was literally all Man City with the ball.
After only 17 minutes it looked as if United had been punished for just sitting in defense as Raheem Sterling buried a low cross from David Silva into the back of net, before it was fortunately ruled offside.
City continued to dominate throughout the half, Darlow, Lascelles and Manquillo were all top performers in the defensive line, but eventually Manchester City got the breakthrough goal when Sergio Aguero headed in Kevin De Bruyne's cross with just the fine hairs on his head to open he scoring after 34 minutes.
Newcastle luckily held on to 1-0 going into the second half with The Citizens having well over 70% possession.
Match (Second Half)
In the second half Newcastle woke up in terms of attacking, (slightly) however City were awarded a penalty after 62 minutes after Raheem Sterling eagerly threw himself onto the ground as he felt Javier Manquillo's hand pull on his shoulder.
Sergio Aguero stepped up to the penalty and slotted it away into the far left of the goal to double Man City's lead and pretty much secure all three points
But the toon weren't going out without a fight, in the 67th minute Jacob Murphy scored his first goal for the club in a counter attack caused by Ciaran Clark playing a long through ball for Murphy to run onto and chip over Ederson from just inside the box to make it 2-1.
At this point Newcastle continued to up their game and for a short while looked like they were going to bring it back to 2-2. They almost did just that when Ederson dropped the ball in the box before Perez and Diame both tried their luck for a rebound goal but both their efforts went straight at the Brazilian keeper.
Newcastle kept this momentum up for a few more minutes before, all of a sudden, it just stops. We just stopped attacking. And, like we deserved, it went back to Man. City dominance.
De Bruyne almost scored a third with 80 minutes gone as his effort curled past the post, but three minutes later City finished the job and Aguero got his hat trick after Sane made an amazing run past the United defense and squared it across the box for the Argentinian to hammer home. The match ended 3-1.
Transfer Window and Next League Game
Since this match was played Newcastle have signed 21-year-old Kennedy from Chelsea. He is expected to make his Debut on TUESDAY 30th of January when United play Burnley at home. We are definitely due a home win and they are due an away win. (their last was a 2-1 win against Bournemouth in November) Still, Burnley at home is a game where we have no excuse to not attack in. We need one or two wins still to push us up the table and get away from that dreaded relegation zone. It is also absolutely necessary that we get another striker in as neither Gayle or Joselu are really up for it this season and Mitrovic is obviously not going to be played.