Here’s Louise Taylor’s match report from St James’ Park:
The so called Gulf derby turned into an ultimately painful exposure of the yawning chasm in class currently separating Abu Dhabi owned Manchester City and Saudi Arabian controlled Newcastle United.
Both clubs may be regarded as having been “trophy” purchases on the part of their oil rich owners but only table topping City are likely to secure silverware anytime soon. Creditably Eddie Howe’s side refused to surrender but television viewers in Riyadh and Jeddah may have felt the need to watch through their fingers whenever City, and in particular, the outstanding Joâo Cancelo assumed possession.
“Saudi Arabia’s going down,” chorused the visiting fans seated high in the Leazes End in response to taunts of “We’re richer than you” from the Gallowgate End and, given that Howe’s side have won only one game all season it is hard to disagree with that assessment. Tellingly it took until the 82nd minute for Callum Wilson to fully test Ederson with a fine header that constituted his side’s first effort on target.
Much more here:
Right, that’s all from me. I leave you with this impressive number, from a City team that will top the table at Christmas. Bye!
📊 @ManCity have set a new top-division record of 3️⃣4️⃣ wins in a calendar year
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 19, 2021
2021 Man City 34
1982 Liverpool 33
2005 Chelsea 32
2019 Liverpool 31
2009 Man Utd 31
1993 Man Utd 31
1960 Tottenham 31 pic.twitter.com/MWDFggbZDK
The football continues at White Hart Lane - Rob Smyth is all over that one:
City’s first goal was obviously a complete defensive calamity, but just look at the defenders’ attempt at closing Cancelo down for their second! They both run towards him before, at the vital moment, one hides to the right, the other hides to the left, and Cancelo is free to shot between them.
Final score: Newcastle 0-4 Manchester City
90+2 mins: It’s all over! Newcastle weren’t that bad, but City are that good.
88 mins: “It is looking more and more like the decision to sack Steve Bruce and bring in Eddie Howe has backfired,” says Richard Harris. “Bruce was largely undermined by injuries to key players. Howe isn’t noted for his ability to organise the defence, and boy does it show. If Newcastle are relegated the new owners will need to look at themselves and accept they messed up big time. Of course they could buy a £200 million new team next week so I may be proved wrong.” I think they’ve improved since Howe came in, and that their league position approximately reflects the quality of their squad.
Updated
86 mins: Jesus, wide on the left, chests down a long ball and heads for the byline, before pulling the ball across goal and into the path of Sterling, who taps in at the back stick!
GOAL! Newcastle 0-4 Man City (Sterling, 86 mins)
A cherry on the victory cake! Victory-a sponge!
Updated
83 mins: There’s shot No5, blazed over by Saint-Maximin.
82 mins: That was Newcastle’s fourth shot, and their first on target. City have had 17 shots, six of them on target.
81 mins: Cracking save! A cross from the right, Wilson heads goalwards, and Ederson palms it away!
80 mins: Jeff Hendrick replaces Almiron in what should be the final substitution. Elsewhere in the Premier League, covid-hit Chelsea are drawing 0-0 at Wolves with quarter of an hour to go, while it turns out Liverpool have also been covid-hit - Thiago misses out on the game with Spurs after returning a positive test, with Jordan Henderson out with an unspecified illness after testing negative.
78 mins: Classy.
"We're richer than you, f**k off Man City, we're richer than you," sing #nufc fans as their team is totally outplayed. 0-3 77. #NEWMCI
— Henry Winter (@henrywinter) December 19, 2021
76 mins: Cole Palmer comes on for Mahrez.
73 mins: This feels like a dead game now. City pass the ball around for a while with no particular attacking intent.
70 mins: ... Ederson throws it out and City run down the other end, where Sterling’s cross is just too high for Mahrez. John Stones then comes on for Ruben Dias.
69 mins: Saint-Maximin dribbles along the edge of Newcastle’s area and picks the perfect ball through to Fraser, whose low centre is cut out by Ederson, with Wilson lurking.
68 mins: Fernandinho comes on for Rodri.
68 mins: Nearly another! A corner is taken by and then worked back to Mahrez, whose cross is headed just wide by Dias!
GOAL! Newcastle 0-3 Manchester City (Mahrez, 64 mins)
He wasn’t offside! It’s a lovely cross, expertly finished, at the end of a long period of possession.
Updated
GOAL! Or is it?
64 mins: Zinchenko’s cross is volleyed in by Mahrez, but the linesman raises his flag. This looks tight ...
63 mins: City are monopolising possession at the moment, despite Newcastle’s attempt to put them off their stride through Longstaff’s moustache.
61 mins: Sean Longstaff comes on for Hayden.
60 mins: Newcastle overcommit to a press, De Bruyne gets past Ritchie with a drop of the shoulder and City have a four-on-three attack, which ends with Cancelo blazing over.
Updated
57 mins: Another save, Dubravka diving to his left to push away Sterling’s curler.
54 mins: Jesus really should have scored there, but even if his header wasn’t particularly well placed it took an outstanding stop to keep it out. City are still pushing, and Jesus has just had a shot deflected wide.
52 mins: What a save! City keep possession for an age, work the ball down the left then out to the right. Cancelo’s deep cross is knocked back in by Bernardo Silva, and Jesus’s point-blank header is somehow turned over the bar!
Updated
50 mins: A really encouraging start to the half from the home side, but they have had three opportunities to play the ball into the penalty area and have wasted them all.
Updated
47 mins: Saint-Maximin’s triple lollipop brings nothing but an opportunity to cross the ball straight to Ederson.
46 mins: City start the second half. Joe Willock has been taken off, with Saint-Maximin replacing him.
Allan Saint-Maximin is stripped off and ready to go as the teams emerge for the second half!
Half time: Newcastle 0-2 Manchester City
45+2 mins: That’s half time. City have dominated possession, but in many ways - not including the scoreline, obviously - it’s a pretty close game. If Newcastle hadn’t gifted City a ludicrously abysmal opener, and Martin Atkinson and VAR Craig Pawson hadn’t refused them a pretty blatant penalty, they would be drawing at the break. Should they be encouraged by their decent performance, or discouraged because they’ve still managed to sneak in a defensive self-implosion?
45+1 mins: Jesus drags a shot just wide with his left foot.
43 mins: Newcastle win a corner on the left, and Hayden heads wide at the far post.
40 mins: Nearly a chance for Newcastle, who send Wilson through from halfway but he’s held up on the edge of the City area, seems to get confused by the possibility of passing to Almiron to his right or Joelinton to his left, and eventually loses the ball.
Updated
39 mins: There have been plenty of positives here for Newcastle, who are disrupting City well and offering a threat on the break.
37 mins: A quieter few minutes, at the end of a period when the match seemed at risk of boiling over.
33 mins: Then Ritchie and Jesus chase a ball that’s going off the pitch anyway. Ritchie swings an arm towards Jesus, before flying into an advertising hoarding.
33 mins: Ruben Dias is off the pitch having a cut on his forehead repaired. It’s getting quite tasty out there.
Updated
31 mins: Silva is booked for a foul, with the home side baying at the injustice of it all. I think Fraser made a slight movement into Ederson when he saw the keeper out of control, sliding towards him. But I’d still say that’s a pretty clear penalty.
30 mins: Cancelo and Fraser race for a ball bouncing into City’s penalty area, as Ederson comes off his line. Cancelo takes the ball, and Ederson takes the man. The home side want a penalty, but aren’t getting one!
GOAL! Newcastle 0-2 Man City (Cancelo, 27 mins)
You can’t blame Dubravka for that one! Cancelo picks the ball up 10 yards inside the Newcastle half, nudges past Willock, cuts inside Hayden, and lashes a right-footer into the net from 20 yards!
Updated
25 mins: Another yellow card, this time for Rodri, who ends Willock’s surge through midfield with a kick in the ankles.
23 mins: Bernardo Silva gets down the left, fools two defenders with little shuffles infield, and then passes just behind Zinchenko, who shoots high.
21 mins: This time Hayden does catch De Bruyne, sliding straight through him with the ball gone. He gets a yellow card and, as it’s his fifth of the season, a suspension in return.
Updated
19 mins: Ederson comes out to claim Almiron’s cross, though his path is blocked by Wilson. The Newcastle striker is thus steamrollered, and the physios are on to check him over.
17 mins: Off the line! But it wouldn’t have counted! City try to play the ball out again, but Hayden pressures De Bruyne, it runs to Fraser, and his effort beats Ederson but is booted clear by Laporte - and the referee had anyway given City an extremely charitable free kick for a “push” on De Bruyne.
Updated
16 mins: Here’s the goal in all its glory.
FIVE MINUTES IN ⚡
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 19, 2021
Ruben Dias puts #MCFC in front!
Horrendous defending from #NUFC 😦
📺 Watch #NEWMCI live on Sky Sports PL pic.twitter.com/QlMSl1auAT
13 mins: City try to play through a high Newcastle press, but Zinchenko boots the ball into Almiron’s raised arm right in front of the linesman, and the pressure lifts.
11 mins: Close! Joelinton drives low and hard from 25 yards but it goes a foot wide!
9 mins: You will not see worse defending anywhere this season. Indescribably awful. Now Willock concedes a free-kick on the left, from which Cancelo lashes a shot at Dubravka from out on the right.
6 mins: Zinchenko sees Cancelo running into the penalty area and chips the ball into his path, but the pass is overhit and Cancelo does well just to keep it in play and gently hook it back across goal. Dubravka could have come to claim, but there was no need with it looping straight to Ciaran Clark - but then Clark ducked underneath it, leaving Dias to head it in on the bounce from two yards!
Updated
GOAL! Newcastle 0-1 Man City (Ruben Dias, 5 mins)
Newcastle gift Ruben Dias a free goal!
Updated
4 mins: Almiron nicks the ball on halfway and runs forwards, the fans roaring him on. Which is perhaps why he didn’t hear Zinchenko coming to take it back again as he neared the City penalty area.
2 mins: The game so far has been mainly stoppage, with Newcastle winning a free kick in their own half and booting it out for a throw-in at the other end.
1 min: Peeeeeeep! Newcastle get the game started.
The players are on the pitch! Brace for kick off, everyone.
Updated
Manchester City have made three changes, with Joao Cancelo, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus coming in, and John Stones, Jack Grealish and Phil Foden dropping out. Grealish, at least, seems to have taken it well.
Not encouraging.
10 - Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has lost all 10 of his Premier League games against Manchester City – the worst 100% losing record any manager has against a specific opponent in the competition’s history. Ominous. pic.twitter.com/9yVGYlLLAo
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 19, 2021
Five changes for Newcastle, who are “counting the cost of a couple of knocks and injuries”, according to Eddie Howe. He says he has picked “really good athletes” with “energy and vibrance” because, to summarise, they’ll have to spend the entire match chasing Manchester City players about.
The teams!
The team news has landed, and here it bally well is:
Newcastle: Dubravka, Murphy, Clark, Lascelles, Ritchie, Almiron, Hayden, Willock, Fraser, Joelinton, Wilson. Subs: Schar, Saint-Maximin, Hendrick, Krafth, Darlow, Anderson, Gayle, Longstaff, White.
Man City: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Zinchenko, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling, Gabriel Jesus. Subs: Stones, Ake, Gundogan, Grealish, Steffen, Fernandinho, Foden, Palmer, Wilson-Esbrand.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
🚨 𝙏𝙀𝘼𝙈-𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 🚨
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) December 19, 2021
HWTL! ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/wA4ZHnu1bd
⭐️ Your City XI to face Newcastle! ⭐️
— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 19, 2021
XI | Ederson, Cancelo, Dias (C), Laporte, Zinchenko, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling
SUBS | Steffen, Stones, Ake, Gundogan, Grealish, Fernandinho, Foden, Palmer, Wilson-Esbrand#ManCity | @HaysTechnology pic.twitter.com/hl2BZmUCiP
Hello world!
Manchester City have laid waste to most opponents in recent years, but not Newcastle. At least, not in Newcastle. The last and indeed only time they won there by more than two goals was in October 1956. Sure, since they lost at St James’ Park four times in as many seasons between 2002-03 and 2005-06 City have only been beaten there once, but they have conceded seven goals in their last three visits and tend to struggle there more than you might expect. So, that’s encouraging.
Today’s are the last top-flight fixtures before Christmas, so victory would mean City spend the festivities at the top of the table no matter what Liverpool do at Tottenham later, while Newcastle, who have never, ever, been in the Yuletide bottom three since the Premier League began, would overtake Watford and scramble clear if they win by, ahem, nine goals or more (though the Hornets would have two games in hand).
It’s 15 years, one month, one week and one day since these teams last played out a goalless draw, and I don’t think that run is likely to end today. Welcome!
