Manchester City sliced the gap to Arsenal at the top of the Premier League (PL) table to two points courtesy of a 2-1 win over Newcastle United, who have now lost on each of their last 17 league visits to the Etihad Stadium.
After an emphatic 6-1 win over Qarabağ in the week, Newcastle were bidding to win a fourth consecutive game for the first time this season, but a lengthy trip to Azerbaijan had clearly taken its toll. Title-chasing City looked excellent in the run up to the opener, when Omar Marmoush drove his side forward and found Nico O’Reilly, who ignored the overlapping run of Erling Haaland and instead fired into the bottom corner from just outside the area.
But the response from the visitors was excellent, and just eight minutes passed before parity was once again restored. Lewis Hall collected the ball from Jacob Ramsey following a corner, rasping in a shot from the edge of the box which took a cruel deflection off Rayan Aït-Nouri and bounced past a flailing Gianluigi Donnarumma into the bottom right. However, Newcastle were only on level terms for five minutes as City took the lead again through O’Reilly, who rose to meet Haaland’s cross from the right before directing his header back across goal and into the net.
