Sandro Tonali has never experienced this at St James’ Park | OneFootball

Will Sandro Tonali start on Saturday?

I certainly hope so.

There are all kinds of reasons as to why.

Though the main one is of course because he is an excellent player.

I totally understand why Eddie Howe has taken it slowly with him.

As somebody wrote this week, after over ten months out and the unconvincing performances from the team so far, it would have been wrong to throw Sandro Tonali in the deep end, both from a physical and mental perspective.

Now though is the time for him to dive in the deep end and start swimming as soon as he hits the water.

Looking at his brief history at Newcastle United so far, I was intrigued to see he has only started these competitive matches at St James’ Park…

Newcastle 5 Aston Villa 1 (12 August 2023)

Sandro Tonali started and was subbed off in the second minute of added time with Newcastle 5-1 up at the time.

Newcastle 1 Liverpool 2 (27 August 2023)

Sandro Tonali started and was subbed off on 72 minutes with Newcastle leading 1-0.

Newcastle 1 Manchester City 0 (27 September 2023)

Sandro Tonali started and was subbed off on 90 minutes with Newcastle leading 1-0.

Newcastle 4 PSG 1 (4 October 2023)

Sandro Tonali started and was subbed off on 65 minutes with NUFC leading 3-1.

As you can see, whenever Sandro Tonali has started at St James’ Park, when he left the pitch Newcastle United were winning in each case. Indeed, only that fluke and undeserved Liverpool win spoils a perfect record of starts at St James’ Park for our Italian talisman.

Even better, on top of that there is also that almost perfect coincidence, that the very last start at St James’ Park in domestic competitions for Newcastle United was exactly a year and a day before this next game on Saturday, against… Manchester City.

Some things are just meant to be and one of those is Sandro Tonali coming back into a (winning!!!) team on Saturday and showing what we have all been missing.

Newcastle 1 Manchester City 0 – Wednesday 27 September 8pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Isak 53

Manchester City:

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Man City 67% (70%)  Newcastle 33% (30%)

Total shots were Man City 10 (6) Newcastle 6 (1)

Shots on target were Man City 2 (1) Newcastle 4 (1)

Corners were Man City 7 (6) Newcastle 4 (1)

Pope; Livramento, Lascelles, Dummett (Schar 90+4), Targett, Tonali (Anderson 90), Miley (Bruno 45), Hall (Gordon 45), Murphy, Isak (Almiron 62), Joelinton