Manchester City travel to St James' Park this weekend with an almost fully-fit squad, while their opponents have injuries to key players.
Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola cuts a happy figure at Manchester City this season - because his players are avoiding injury
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If you want a surefire way to wind Pep Guardiola up these days, head to a Manchester City press conference and ask him about last season. Why it went off the rails? What has changed this season? That line of questioning should do the trick.
The reply will probably start along the lines of "for the thousandth millionth time", and then Guardiola will go on to say it was down to the injuries. There have been variations on the theme this season, including a loss of energy from the players and taking their eye off the ball. However, essentially, last season's issues boiled down to too many injuries.
That crisis was at its peak around a year ago. This time last season, City were about to lose for the fifth game in a row, and it would be a long time before things improved. When one player returned, another would go down. Or players would push themselves to return early, only to find they then suffered another setback.
There is no doubt that fitness issues played a major role in the way City fell apart a year ago. Perhaps that was the catalyst for the collapse, with morale falling apart because of the results that followed.
This season, the contrast is stark. A year ago, Guardiola was struggling to fill his bench with first-team players. Now, he is having to leave international players out of a 20-man squad every week.
Ahead of Saturday's trip to Newcastle, Rodri and Mateo Kovacic are the only players unavailable to Guardiola. While Kovacic is going to be out until February or March, Rodri could return this weekend. Guardiola will offer an update on the fitness of his squad at his Friday morning press conference.
The lack of injuries has given him plenty of options. Against Liverpool, he had players of the quality of John Stones, Tijjani Reijnders, Savinho and Omar Marmoush in reserve. Every substitute could have played a role and has done so before. A strong group also lifts the quality of training sessions and City are improving this season because the standard is high.
Despite the tactical tweaks and personnel changes this season, Guardiola may be right that the biggest change lies in the fitness record of his squad, which, for now, is exemplary.
That isn't the case for every side and in Newcastle, City visit a club struggling with its own problems. Eddie Howe will provide an update on Friday, but it is possible that he will be without Nick Pope, Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, Joelinton, Anthony Gordon, Yoane Wissa, and William Osula, as well as the suspended Dan Burn.
There is hope on Tyneside that Hall and Osula might be able to return against City, but injuries have played a part in Newcastle's rocky start to the campaign, which sees them sitting in a lowly 14th position in the Premier League.
That just goes to show then when several senior players are absent at the same time, continuing to pick up results is extremely difficult to achieve. City found that out last season, and so far this season, they are showing that the reverse is also true. If Saturday's game comes down to an impact off the bench, then Guardiola will be very happy indeed.