The old aura that surrounded Pep Guardiola's irresistible and seemingly unbeatable Manchester City sides is certainly over.
A wounded animal these days, City's bid to close the gap on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League took a surprise blow after they slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Newcastle, courtesy of a whirlwind second half of drama at both ends of the pitch.
The hosts took the lead after Nico O'Reilly squandered possession cheaply, with Bruno Guimaraes linking up sharply with Harvey Barnes before the latter cracked his low effort across Gianluigi Donnarumma and into the bottom corner.
However, City found themselves back on level terms just minutes later, Ruben Dias squeezing his strike through the legs of Fabian Schar after Newcastle failed to clear the danger from Bernardo Silva's devilish corner.
Guardiola roared his troops on under the lights at a raucous St James' Park, but it was the home crowd who were sent into raptures when Barnes scored his second of the night, touching over the line after a deflection off the crossbar. VAR took a long look, and the strike was eventually allowed to stand despite officials seemingly not drawing offside lines.
The result left City trailing the league leaders by four points ahead of the North London derby on Sunday night, and supporters were quick to lay the blame at the feet of two normally reliable attacking superstars.
Erling Haaland And Phil Foden Both Poor Against Newcastle
Both Erling Haaland and Phil Foden were unusually wasteful on Tyneside, and their profligacy may well have cost City victory.
Foden regularly found himself in promising positions but made the wrong decision time and again, including an occasion in which he blazed horribly off target from distance despite having Haaland and Jeremy Doku in support inside the box. He was eventually hooked by a furious Guardiola on 87 minutes, but the change came too little, too late.
But Haaland was also the target of frustration from the away end, high up in the stands at the famous old stadium. Doku teed up the Norwegian with an inch-perfect cutback, but he could only dig his effort right at Nick Pope, who palmed away with relative ease. He also missed a golden chance to open the scoring after just two minutes when he stabbed wide after Pope stormed out of his area.
Guardiola will hope that the two forwards simply endured a poor day at the office, but supporters certainly showed signs of real concern when delivering their verdict on the performance on social media.
"Foden looked well off it today," one X user said. "Haaland wasteful and not been in it much second half. Struggling to create now."
Another pinned the result solely on the duo, writing:
This loss is on Haaland and Foden, if you miss chances you get punished, as simple as that.
A third supporter said: "Haaland and Foden have had stinkers."
The criticism kept on coming, with a fourth account posting: "Haaland & Foden, idk man but you guys should be ashamed of yourselves."
"Foden and Haaland have cost us the game. I can't believe it," was the withering opinion of another unhappy matchgoer.