Five Things Learned: Newcastle United 1-1 Manchester City (Premier League)

The points were shared in the north-east as Anthony Gordon’s penalty cancelled out Josko Gvardiol’s opener in a 1-1 draw between Newcastle United and Manchester City.

The Saturday lunchtime affair prompted a mouth-watering clash between Eddie Howe’s side and Manchester City, which saw the two teams share the points in an overall fair result at St James’ Park.

Manchester City began the game largely in control of proceedings, but failed to unlock the Newcastle defence despite a couple of half chances from Ilkay Gundogan and Erling Haaland in particular.

Eventually, the hosts managed to grab a foothold of the game and worried the visitors, but it was the blues that struck first against the run of play, thanks to wonderful link-up play between Jack Grealish and Josko Gvardiol.

Following a penetrating run down the left by Grealish, the Croatian found himself in the penalty area, jinking the ball onto his right foot and slotting one past a stranded Nick Pope, giving Manchester City a priceless lead in the first-half.

It didn’t take long for the lead to be cancelled out though, when a defence-splitting pass saw Anthony Gordon freed into a one-vs-one situation with Ederson, taking it round the Brazilian who tripped the forward, albeit with minimal contact, giving Newcastle a penalty.

After winning the spot-kick, the England international – who was welcomed by a tifo from the hosts’ support – stepped up and converted it, sending Manchester City’s stopper the wrong way, levelling the scores.

Despite a couple of half chances from both sides, including a thunderous strike from Bernardo Silva which took a huge save from Nick Pope to deny him, the scoring finished there, as the points were shared with the Toon.

With that being said, here are the Five Things Learned from Saturday afternoon’s draw with Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United squad!

A solid result at a difficult away ground

After dropping points for the third time in four games, it may appear that Manchester City are undergoing a rocky spell in the season, but Saturday’s game does not deserve that summary, given the context of the situation.

Playing without Rodri is never going to be an easy feat, and partnering that with a trip to the infamously difficult St. James Park, earning a point is by no means a bad result for the champions.

With a trip to Slovakia looming on Tuesday night and a home match against Fulham on the following Saturday, six points from six will put the blues back in a great position to be thinking about silverware this season.

Ilkay Gundogan hasn’t quite hit the heights expected yet

The peak of the transfer window for Manchester City fans was the unexpected return of Ilkay Gundogan back to the club, courtesy of a free transfer from Barcelona. However, the German’s return to the club has been somewhat underwhelming so far.

After captaining the side to a historic treble in 2023, Gundogan was a fan favourite in Manchester, leaving everyone devastated when the club announced he would be leaving the club in the summer of 2023.

Although his performances haven’t quite lived up to the standards we became so used to seeing from the midfielder, he has plenty of time to turn it around this season, due to the injury sustained to Rodri last weekend.

Have Haaland’s goals papered over the cracks so far?

Scoring 10 goals in the opening five league games of the season, Erling Haaland has had a blistering start to the campaign. However, a knock to his achilles made him largely ineffective on Saturday, as the shots on goal quickly dried up for the blues.

The lack of impact from Haaland shown a slight chink in the armour for Manchester City, as the blues looked rather clueless in the final third without the 24-year-old creating a yard and getting a shot off himself.

Pep Guardiola has confirmed the knock sustained to Haaland will remain to be seen whether he will be injured for the upcoming games, which is a worrying sign if he was to be out for a sustained period given the performance in attack for City on Saturday.

Is it time to give up on Kyle Walker in these games?

Club captain Kyle Walker has had a relatively poor start to the season, as his lack of reading of a situation played Anthony Gordon onside for the equaliser on Saturday, which only compiled a number of mistakes made by the Englishman so far this season.

Given the performances of Rico Lewis which completely contrast that of Walker, is it finally time to realise the age of Walker is starting to show, and only call on the full-back when absolutely necessary this season?

One game at a time…

Following the draw on Saturday afternoon, many City fans were speculating ahead and thinking about the possible repercussions on the Premier League title race after dropping points to Newcastle United.

With Manchester City notoriously making slow starts to a season, the panic brigade will have to be patient, as Pep Guardiola’s players still look to build some momentum going into the start of a new campaign.