Newcastle United retired Erling Haaland (£14.9m) by scoring for the sixth league and cup match in a row on Saturday evening.
The Magpies once again gave their best to Tyneside with a 2-1 win over Pep Guardiola’s side, who have won just two of their six away games this season.
Here’s what we learned from the clash at St James’ Park.
HAALAND BLANKS – SOMEHOW
The brilliant Malick Thiaw (£4.9m) rightly deserved plaudits for his handling of Haaland on Saturday. But if this was the Norwegian at his ‘quietest’, then an expected goals total (xG) of 1.54 only underlines what a ruthless threat the striker is.
Yes, Thiaw and the recalled Fabian Schar (£5.3m) generally kept Haaland well. But FPL’s runaway points leader still should have scored two, possibly three times.
Already in the second minute, Haaland was clear on target and unusually shot a chip attempt wide. Half an hour later he shot straight at him Nick Pope (£5.2m) from eight metres. Even with his lower xG header in the 58th minute, you’ve seen him bury that chance at the back post several times.
He probably should have also been given a penalty for a foul on Phil Foden (£8.0 million) which was not given.
So those who went against Haaland as captain this week can toast their decisions – but considering he recorded his third-highest xG of 2025/26, it shouldn’t have turned out so well.
Above: The Gameweeks in which Erling Haaland posted his highest xG figures of the season
DONNARUMMA impresses
In what was an extremely entertaining and crazy match, the big chances came at a rapid pace – especially in the first half.
In addition to the flurry of chances from Haaland, Foden and Harvey Barnes (£6.3m) both somehow went wide with the goal at their mercy.
Rayan Cherki (£6.4 million), Jeremy Doku (£6.5 million) and Nico O’Reilly (£5.0m), each of which has attracted some FPL interest in recent weeks, were all denied assists thanks to Foden and Haaland’s sitters. Doku is now second in the table of chance creation in the Premier League (CC, below):
But the City boys do Gianluigi Donnarumma (£5.7 million) as thanks for staying in the game at the other end. The Italian almost gifted Newcastle an early goal – distribution is not his strong point – but he made up for it with three fine stops from a lively game. Nick Woltemade (£7.4m).
Donnarumma’s save percentage is now at the second-best level of 78.3% since his summer transfer.
A set-and-forget, rotation-resistant (in theory!) ‘keeper for the next run forward?
Those with money lying around might consider it, but six points has very much been his ceiling this season.
BRACKETS FOR BARNES + BRUNO
Barnes scored three goals in two weeks with a brace on Saturday.
His goals-per-match ratio has always been strong; it’s just the game time guarantees that were missing. Anthony Gordon‘s (£7.3m) impending return doesn’t help in that regard, even though Barnes currently holds the cards. Shape or no shape, you would imagine the rotation on the flanks will increase in December.
As for Bruno Guimaraes (£6.6 million), he claimed assists for both of Barnes’ strikes. He has now quietly risen to joint fifth place in the points table of the FPL midfielders:
One thing worth mentioning, however, is that Eddie Howe played the role of Bruno and Sandro Tonali (£5.4m) on Saturday. The former, now in the ‘six’ role, completed fewer last-third passes than he had registered in any match this season.
It remains to be seen if Howe sticks to this tactic, but it’s worth considering for those tempted by Bruno.
“That was one of the things we adjusted, without going into too much detail, just to get the right player in the position we wanted him in. I thought both players played very, very well.” – Eddie Howe on the midfield switch
HALL EXCELS – BAD NEWS FOR BURN?
It’s probably no coincidence that Newcastle’s performance, especially going forward, was better Tino Livramento (£4.9 million) and Lewis Hall (£5.2 million) in the side. Both full-backs, especially Hall, were excellent on the night.
“That was a great achievement [Hall]. Took the ball under pressure, linked well with Harvey, ran forward when he could in that first half, before his legs started to tire!
“Tino… looked physically incredible today considering it was still seven weeks away. A really high level performance against a dangerous opponent.” –Eddie Howe
It begs the question how Then Burns (£5.1m) returns to the squad now that his one-match suspension is over.
You saw Burn start the midweek Champions League match against Marseille at left back, while Hall suffered a cramp in the closing stages on Saturday. Will Hall return next for Gameweek 13? Perhaps Burns’ best chance of a recall is at left centre-back, where Schar (on his wrong side) moved the out-of-form player. Sven Botman (£4.9m) against City.
TRIPPIER + GORDON NEWEST
Livramento was in the flank Kieran Trippier (£5.0 million) was unexpectedly absent due to a minor hamstring problem.
Howe gave the latest news about him and Gordon after full-time.
“Anthony is very close, but not quite ready for today. But he is working hard and I think he will be ready in the coming days.”
“Kieran, I’m not sure, I’m waiting for feedback from the medical team.” –Eddie Howe
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