Newcastle United – Manchester City: End To End As The Toon Edge City In Transition (2-1)

Newcastle edged Manchester City 2-1 at St. James’ Park. An end-to-end game saw Newcastle win 2-1 with a brace from Harvey Barnes seeing off an equaliser by Ruben Dias. The win resulted in City dropping to 3rd in the Premier League table as Newcastle moved up to 14th.

Tactical analysis and match report by Gaurav Krishnan.

St. James’ Park was vociferous under the lights as Manchester City visited the iconic English stadium, looking to close the gap on Arsenal. But a rampant & rejuvenised Newcastle side wouldn’t let City turn the tide.

A lot has been said about Newcastle’s poor start to the 2025/26 season. Under Eddie Howe, the Toon have been revitalised and rekindled. Last season saw Newcastle win their first piece of silverware in 70 years, but this season has started poorly for Eddie Howe’s side.

However, this game was an archetypal performance under the Eddie Howe blueprint that saw the Toon fire on all cylinders, creating several openings against the City defense and eventually resulted in a huge three points that could propel Newcastle to better results this season.

Manchester City looked like they had turned a corner. Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game in charge against Liverpool ended with City picking up the three points, so it did look like Guardiola’s Sky Blues had got their season back on track. But on this particular evening, it wasn’t to be.

An end-to-end, free-flowing game saw both sides create several chances, but in what was rather telling, Newcastle pipped City by taking theirs in the . . .