‘We have returned to our way of playing’ – Howe takes positive points from the defeat against Man City – Soccer News

Eddie Howe believes Newcastle United have “returned to our way of playing” despite a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City.

The Magpies were brought down by Nico O’Reilly’s brace at the Etihad Stadium, with Lewis Hall getting on the scoresheet for the visitors and Dan Burn seeing a header ruled out for offside.

Hall’s equalizer was Newcastle’s first Premier League goal at the Etihad in 2,730 days since September 2018 (DeAndre Yedlin), after failing to score in any of the six away games against the Citizens in between.

However, Newcastle still lost their seventh Premier League away game of the season (W3 D4). That is already as many defeats on the road as they have suffered in the entire period 2024-2025 (W8 D4).

Newcastle also saw their three-match winning run in all competitions come to an end, but Howe remained optimistic.

“We are disappointed with the two goals conceded,” Howe told TNT Sports.

“We followed the game closely in the second half and with Harvey we were in it until the end [Barnes] shot to the end.

“We chased the game against a very good team. We did a great job of doing that to a man the entire game.”

“The end product, the last cross, the last finish wasn’t quite there. There were several moments where we should have done better.

“We’ve gotten back to a good style of play, our style of play. We’ve done that in the last four games and as long as we achieve that consistently, I’ll be happy.”

Geordie Support

Thanks to the traveling fans as always pic.twitter.com/IQnADeedwq

— Newcastle United (@NUFC) February 21, 2026

Newcastle traveled to Manchester after a long trip to Azerbaijan to take on Qarabag in the Champions League. They won that match 6-1.

Hall, like Howe, chose to look positively at their result at the Etihad after an exhausting week.

“I think we can be very proud of the efforts we have made,” said the defender.

“It was a difficult week for us in terms of travel, a long road day [midweek] and returned in the early hours.

“Playing here against some of the best players in the world and working with them, unfortunately we were not able to get a result, but we can be proud of the achievement.”