Phil Foden and Erling Haaland missed each missed a pair of sitters as Manchester City fell to a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United which threatens to derail their Premier League title charge. City's two big-game players froze at St James' Park and Harvey Barnes grabbed the headlines instead, giving Newcastle the lead and then snatching the winner after Ruben Dias' deflected equaliser.
The first half witnessed the highest amount of Big Chances created in the league this season and it felt like a competition to determine who could miss the most glaring opportunities. Haaland dinked the ball wide after a wonderful through ball from Jeremy Doku and then aimed straight at Nick Pope after a cut-back from Nico O'Reilly. Foden missed an even better opportunity when he fired wide of the far post after playing a one-two with Rayan Cherki. Newcastle were equally guilty of wastefulness. Nick Woltemade sent a shot and a header too close to Gianluigi Donnarumma. Barnes had the reddest face of all though, somehow missing the target from point-blank range when meeting a sweeping ball across the box.
City had two penalty appeals turned down, first when Foden fell from a tackle by Fabian Schar - albeit after getting his shot away - and then when a Doku shot hit the arm of Malick Thiaw.
The second half was less frenetic but it delivered on the goals front. Barnes compensated for his glaring miss by nailing the ball into the bottom corner to put Newcastle in front in the 64th minute. The Magpies' joy did not last long as Dias knocked a goal back for City with the help of a big deflection off Schar but Newcastle came straight back at Pep Guardiola's side, capitalising on some poor goalkeeping from Donnarumma to bundle the ball in after Bruno Guimaraes had headed against the bar.
The goal was given after a long VAR check for offside, meaning City had eight minutes of additional time to find their way back. But it was no use and they had to digest a fourth defeat in just 12 Premier League games, handing a massive advantage in the title race to Arsenal one day before the North London derby.
GOAL rates Man City's players from St James' Park...