Newcastle suffered a 2-1 defeat as Nico O’Reilly’s two first-half goals took Manchester City to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal, and Howe was disappointed by the defensive lapses that contributed to the home side’s goals.
But the Magpies asked some difficult questions of the City defence, with Anthony Gordon once again impressing as a central striker and the likes of Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock also creating problems on the counter-attack.
Newcastle will have home advantage when they renew rivalries in the FA Cup, and while their record at the Etihad might be wretched, they have enjoyed some notable home victories over City in the last few seasons.
Howe will be hoping for another successful night on Tyneside, and admits last night’s game has provided some pointers for how he might look to set up his side for the FA Cup fixture.
“There’s possibly things that we’ll look to feed in,” said the Magpies boss. “Football changes so quickly, even in a couple of weeks. We’ll be in a different position I’m sure, and they’ll be in a different position in the sense of the team, system and set-up.
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“So, you never quite know. But there’s certainly things we adjusted from the [Carabao] Cup game we weren’t happy with, and I thought that was a positive few changes for us.
“So, we’ll look at it again and we’ll try to work out how we can improve our performance again. Certainly, the two goals we conceded would be a big thing that we need to look at.”
Pep Guardiola is not expecting an easy night on Tyneside in a couple of weeks’ time, with the Manchester City having been full of praise for Newcastle’s performance in last night’s game.
“I don’t know, the guy who made the draw, the FA Cup against Newcastle, having to come back again to Newcastle in two weeks, what a nightmare,” said Guardiola.
“We lost the first game against Newcastle this season, but now we have won three in a row against them. But they are an unbelievable team. I saw the game in Champions League, 6-1.
“The pace they have up front with Gordon and Elanga, the long balls with Woltemade. They have pace in the middle, with physicality and quality. It’s an incredibly complete team, and it’s so, so tough to play against them.
“Every department is really, really strong. Today, they were man-marking, aggressive, and they won duels, but we were there with them, standing strong.”