Last Saturday Newcastle 2 ended Manchester City 1.
I was lucky enough to be at St James’ Park and see it happen.
Newcastle United were excellent.
Pep Guardiola fielded his very best eleven and he knew it would be a tough test.
Newcastle United were on a run of five home games in a row and in their last four visits to SJP, Man City had won just one.
Manchester City arrived on Tyneside in their best form of the season.
They had won 11 and lost just one of their last 14 games in all competitions, and in their last three games against Man City in November they won 3-0 against Liverpool, 4-1 against Borussia Dortmund and 3-1 against Bournemouth.
To stay relatively in touch with Arsenal, Manchester City needed to win at St James’ Park.
After more than 90 minutes and the final whistle, Newcastle United had won the match.
Not only did Eddie Howe’s players put in their very best performance of the season, creating probably the biggest chances they’ve had against any team this season. Certainly in the Premier League, United could and should have won by a larger margin.
Pep Guardiola was so frustrated with the defeat and how much better Newcastle United had been against his best Manchester City side that he took it out on Bruno, the match referee and even a cameraman.
Everton
But despite everything I’ve described above, pretty much everyone wants to ignore what happened just a week ago.
Pundits, journalists and even many Newcastle United fans.
Obviously we are all upset about the defeat in Marseille and how it happened, with a 1-0 lead and then poor defending allowing two goals in the few minutes after the second half kick-off. That wasn’t even a bad performance, though; Newcastle United competed well for the vast majority of the game, with the exception of probably the first 20-25 minutes of the second half before dominating the later stages without being able to find an equalizer. The first half had been a highly entertaining affair, with chances at both ends, with Newcastle giving the best they could, especially as the away side in a hostile environment.
However, I think those five minutes in which Newcastle United conceded the two goals in this away Champions League match clearly overshadowed everything else. Almost everyone is just thinking about this and has a negative frame of mind ahead of the Everton game.
The reality is that just a week ago Newcastle United were fantastic against high-flying Manchester City and were better than them. It looks like Eddie Howe has all those eleven starters available against Man City for Saturday at the Hill Dickenson Stadium and why shouldn’t we be confident that Newcastle can perform well and hopefully win?
Yes, I’m fully aware that this is an away game and Newcastle haven’t done too well on their travels this season…
However, last weekend we saw what a huge difference Hall and Livramento brought with them.
They helped Newcastle United gain much greater control of the game and retain possession, especially with Lewis Hall on the left.
Doku was in top form heading into last weekend’s competition, but Tino absolutely dominated him. There’s no reason why he can’t do the same today against Grealish, who has arguably been Everton’s biggest attacking threat this season.
There were also four days between games, rather than three as is often the case after/before the Champions League, and Joelinton also got some valuable rest in midweek. Everton are missing players in midfield and if NUFC’s first choice can perform as well as they did against Man City, then we have to do business.
Eddie Howe also looks to have a stronger side (Burn no longer suspended, Gordon back from injury etc) available for Everton than last weekend, which equates to a stronger bench, so there could be options for tired legs during the match to hopefully get the win.
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