Welcome to this Manchester City v Newcastle preview.
Saturday 21st February and an 8pm kick-off.
The Toon travel to Man City this weekend looking to avenge their recent League Cup semi-final defeat.
After some early season travel sickness, Newcastle United are looking to win their fourth away match in succession, having enjoyed victories over Spurs, Villa and Qarabag.
They face a Man City team who have already been put to the sword by the Toon in the league this season, meaning victory would secure a league double over the citizens for the first time since 1984.
Form
Newcastle have won two, drawn one and lost three of their past six league matches. Wins have come against Tottenham and Leeds whilst we also secured a point in a dour 0-0 draw with Wolves. Defeats have come against Villa, Liverpool and Brentford. We’ve scored nine goals in this sequence and conceded thirteen. The seven points gained has us tenth in the league and a win could see us in the top eight.
Man City have won three, drawn two and lost one of their past six league matches. Wins have come against Fulham, Liverpool and Wolves, they’ve drawn with Tottenham and Brighton and lost to bitter rivals Man United. They’ve scored ten goals and conceded six. The eleven points gained has them second in the table and a win could see them just two points off Arsenal.
Last time out
The Toon made a round trip of over five thousand miles on Wednesday night to do battle with Qarabag in Azerbaijan. On paper, this had the potential to be a very difficult away tie against a team that had already drawn at home to Chelsea this season. Newcastle got off to an absolute dream start when Anthony Gordon was played in by an outstanding through ball by Dan Burn and slotted home after just three minutes. The Toon doubled their advantage soon after when Malick Thiaw headed home at the back post and continued to take the game to their opponents. The rest of the half was to bring more goals for NUFC with two penalty conversions from Gordon coming either side of a smart finish from the same player. Half-time came with Newcastle 5-0 up but it was Qarabag who netted first in the second half to slightly reduce the arrears. Scoring was then completed by Murphy to round off a fine 6-1 success.
Man City hosted Salford in the FA Cup last weekend and ran out 2-0 winners. This was a far from comfortable experience for the blues who were expected to win heavily and were reliant on an early own goal and a late clincher when they were really feeling the pressure.
Stat attack!
-Newcastle have lost their last twelve straight games at the Etihad in all competitions.
-NUFC have only scored eleven goals in twenty-three visits to the Etihad stadium since making their debut there in 2004.
-The Toon will be looking for their first point at the Etihad since 2006. The last seventeen league trips have all ended in defeat.
Memorable match
In October 2014, Alan Pardew took a young Newcastle team to the Etihad in search of their first ever win at the stadium. A fascinating subplot was provided by Ryan Taylor who started his first match in almost two years. It took just six minutes for teenage attacker Rolando Aarons to burst into the box and slip the ball past the Man City ‘keeper to put the Toon 1-0 against the League Cup holders. Man City were never going to take this lying down and Rob Elliot was forced into a fine save before Coloccini hit his own post as NUFC lived dangerously. Despite this, we were still unlucky not to take a two goal lead into the half-time break as we went close through local lads Dummett and Armstrong. The second half was a nervy affair and a massively controversial incident saw the Toon denied a blatant penalty when Obertan was hacked down from behind in the area. Newcastle’s place in the quarter-final was assured however with just fifteen minutes left to play when Moussa Sissoko showed fancy footwork to glide past two defenders before beating the ‘keeper and giving us a 2-0 lead. The travelling Toon Army went wild in celebration and ironically took part in ‘the Poznan’ that Man City fans had become famous for a few years previously. This was an incredible victory and completely unexpected as Pardew’s side dreamed of an appearance in their first League Cup semi-final since 1976. To this day, it remains our only success at the Etihad. Man City 0-2 Newcastle.
Played for both
Stuart Pearce is one of the best footballers England has ever produced. He was near the twilight of his career when signing for NUFC in 1997. Often ridiculed as part of a ‘Dad’s Army’ brigade of Dalglish signings, Pearce became an integral part of the team and rifled home a fine free-kick in a 2-0 Champions League win against Dynamo Kiev. He also played in the 1998 FA Cup final as Newcastle made the showpiece occasion for the first time in twenty-four years. He began the next season by firing home a brilliant effort in a pre-season friendly at home to Juventus but the replacement of Dalglish with Ruud Gullit was the beginning of the end of his time at Newcastle and he didn’t play a match after December 1998. Forced to train with the reserves, Pearce went to West Ham for two years before spending the 01/02 season at Kevin Keegan’s Manchester City, captaining the club to promotion and scoring three goals in thirty-eight league appearances. He stayed on at the club as a coach and was made caretaker manager when Keegan left in 2005. He was then given the job permanently and lasted two seasons as Man City manager.
Darren Huckerby signed from Lincoln in 1995 but his chances of career development at the Toon were massively hindered by Keegan’s decision to scrap the reserve team due to a rule that they’d have to play some matches at St James’ Park. A little known fact is that his signing inadvertently brought about Alan Shearer’s first ever NUFC goal. Part of the deal was that Newcastle would travel to Lincoln in the pre-season of 1996 and by that time we’d signed Mr Shearer who converted a penalty on his debut in a 2-0 win (Albert adding the second). Darren only made two appearances for Newcastle and was unlucky not to find the net during an impressive performance at home to Chelsea in the FA Cup. He went to Millwall on loan and played for both Coventry and Leeds before signing for Man City in 2000. He scored twenty-two goals in sixty-nine league games, including a winner against Toon in 2002.
Stephen Ireland started his career at Manchester City in 2005 and spent five years at the Blues before signing for Aston Villa. He scored sixteen league goals for City including a late equaliser against the Toon in 2008. An amusing anecdote from Ireland’s career came in a match against our arch rivals Sunderland in 07/08 when he was still at Man City. After scoring the only goal of the game, Ireland (for reasons probably best kept to himself) dropped his shorts to reveal some rather tight superman underpants! The FA failed to see the funny side and there was even talk of banning him before a decision was made that a warning would suffice. He signed on loan for Newcastle in 2010 but struggled with fitness and only made two appearances for the black and whites.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 6-1 win away at Qarabag in the Champions League:
“’It was an outstanding display, probably one of our best in a long time. Qarabag were unfortunate to face us in that kind of form. They showed their quality and had their moments, but overall, I thought we defended well. Our idea is always to be on the front foot. We want to attack first, that’s how we approach every game. We believed in the team we selected, with a lot of attacking intent on the pitch. Sometimes it comes together like it did tonight, sometimes it doesn’t but we’re delighted with the level every player reached. It looks like with the run of away games that we’ve had, we’ve learned how to play away! I pay tribute to the team today. That first half is as good as we’ve played in a long time. We were really good. We know the tie isn’t dead. We know we have to be professional. We’ve won three games and, in the blink of an eye, the feeling is very different.”
From The Away End Newcastle United Players Clapping Fans Qarabag
Photo by Tony Mallabar via The Mag
Pep Guardiola after a 2-0 FA Cup win against Salford City:
“That is the reason why the game was boring. The only good news is we go through. That’s all .It would be nice for me to say mentally we’re exhausted, we’re tired, it has been a tough two or three weeks for many reasons but it’s our job. The calendar says to play every few days. We just didn’t read where the spaces were and everything was flat and slow and not good.”
Charity
As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.
Prediction
Newcastle may well be buoyed by their three successive away wins, but unfortunately, I think this is where the run will end. Man City are chasing down Arsenal for the title and have a formidable record against NUFC. I think we’ll put up a fight and it will be a more competitive match than the recent League Cup semi-final but this will be one game too far after a good run of away form.
Man City 2-1 Newcastle