Guardiola makes nine changes for Newcastle visit

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Manchester City F.C.

·21 February 2026

Guardiola makes nine changes for Newcastle visit

Pep Guardiola has made nine changes to his City starting line-up for tonight’s Premier League game against Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium.

Men's Team

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Only Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush remain from the team that started the 2-0 FA Cup win over Salford City a week ago.

Erling Haaland is back to lead the attack, with Rodri and Gianluigi Donnarumma also returning to the starting XI.

Goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli isn’t fully fit and is replaced in the squad by 19-year-old Jack Wint.

Meanwhile, Max Alleyne and Nathan Ake miss out on selection, and Mateo Kovacic, Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol remain sidelined through injury.

Victory this evening would see City close the gap on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table to two points ahead of tomorrow’s north London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

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Teams

Manchester City XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Guéhi, Ait-Nouri, Rodrigo, Bernardo (C), O’Reilly, Semenyo, Marmoush, Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Cherki, Nico, Savinho, Khusanov, Foden, Lewis

Newcastle United XI: Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Willock, Ramsey, Elanga, Gordon, Woltemade

Subs: Ruddy, Ramsdale, Joelinton, Barnes, Osula, J.Murphy, A. Murphy, Shahar, Neave

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Tactics

It looks like a 4-3-3 formation for City this evening.

Gianluigi Donnarumma is back in goal. The Italian has been exceptional since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer. He brings a presence and physicality that breads confidence.

Matheus Nunes continues at right-back, where his energy and attacking impetus have been key this season, with Rayan Ait-Nouri on the left. Ruben Dias and Marc Guéhi start together at centre-back.

Rodri will play in the holding role, with Bernardo Silva and Nico O’Reilly either side of him in midfield.

And upfront, City look capable of goals, with Antoine Semenyo and Omar Marmoush playing off Erling Haaland

Newcastle arrive at the Etihad Stadium full of confidence after their 6-1 win over Qarabag in the Champions League play-off first leg in Baku.

That game saw Anthony Gordon score four times, with the forward in electric form on the night. He is one to watch for City this evening.

Game 4

This is the fourth meeting between the two sides this season, with one more set to come.

Newcastle won the reverse Premier League fixture at St James’ Park 2-1 back in November, but City have since come out on top in both legs of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

A 2-0 win at St James’ Park thanks to goals from Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki, and then an Omar Marmoush double and another from Tijjani Reijnders at the Etihad secured a 5-1 aggregate win to set up a meeting with Arsenal in the showpiece Wembley final in March.

And there will be a fifth instalment of this rivalry when the two sides meet in early March at St James’ Park in the FA Cup fifth round.

Added incentive

As Guardiola so often says, our focus is purely on what Manchester City do on the pitch. We cannot control what our rivals do, and a strategy of taking things game-by-game has served us well under the Catalan.

However, there is undoubtedly added incentive this evening at the Etihad. Victory for City over Newcastle – a side we are unbeaten against in our last 21 home matches in the league - would see us move just two points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal at the top of the table.

With Arsenal playing away at Tottenham tomorrow in the north London derby, a win for City here would pile serious pressure on the Gunners ahead of that game.

Moreover, with Aston Villa dropping points earlier today as they drew 1-1 at home to Leeds United, we have a chance to put a five-point gap between us and Unai Emery’s side in third.

It feels like a crucial period of the season.

After last weekend’s 2-0 win over Salford City in the FA Cup, the squad were given three days off to rest and recover, with no midweek game providing a rare opportunity for a side competing in all competitions to allow its players some downtime.

They were advised to switch off from football – eat well, sleep well, spend time with family and generally relax away from the stresses and strains of the relentless fixture schedule.

But now it’s back to work. The games are coming in quick, with City still competing for four trophies. And with just three wins in our last eight Premier League games, we have to start showing more consistency if we want to end the campaign with the big prizes.

Three points tonight would feel particularly big and send a message to our rivals we are ready to compete.

Stats

City are unbeaten in our last 21 Premier League home games against Newcastle, winning each of the last 16. In English top-flight history, only Everton have had a longer winning home run against an opponent (22 vs Fulham between 1961 and 2018).

Newcastle are looking to complete their first league double over City since 1983-84 (second tier), and first in the top-flight since 1955-56. However, their 20 games at the Etihad Stadium is the most a team has played at a venue without ever winning in Premier League history (D2 L18).

Manchester City have won our last six Premier League home games against Newcastle without conceding. In our top-flight history, only against Stoke have we had a longer run of consecutive wins to nil (7 between 1982 and 2014).

Newcastle could complete a league double over City, having lost both legs of their League Cup semi-final against them in January and February. The last side to win both Premier League meetings against an opponent in a season when they’ve also lost two games to them in other competitions was Manchester City in 2011-12 against Man Utd (lost in Community Shield and FA Cup).

Since conceding four goals in a 5-4 win over Fulham in December, Manchester City have only conceded eight goals in 12 Premier League matches, the fewest of any side in that time (MD15 onwards), with goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma preventing exactly three goals based on his xGoT in that time (11 xGoT, 8 conceded).

Each of Newcastle’s last nine Premier League away wins have been against teams starting the day in the bottom half of the table. They’re winless in 10 on the road against top half teams (D3 L7) since a 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest in November 2024, while they’re winless in 37 at sides in the top two (D5 L32) since a 3-1 win at Arsenal in December 2001.

Since the 2010-11 season, English managers have taken charge of 76 away Premier League matches at Manchester City – only one has won, with Roy Hodgson leading Crystal Palace to a 3-2 win in December 2018 (D8 L67).

City’s Omar Marmoush has scored five goals in his two home games against Newcastle in all competitions, netting a hat-trick in this exact fixture last season, and a brace in this season’s EFL Cup semi-final.

Harvey Barnes scored both of Newcastle’s goals in their 2-1 win over City in the reverse fixture. The last Magpies player to score home and away against the Citizens in the same league season was Alan Shearer in 2004-05.

Phil Foden has been involved in 99 Premier League goals (68 goals, 31 assists) and could be the sixth Man City player to 100 goal involvements. He would be the 18th youngest player to this milestone overall (25y 269d on the day of the game), and second youngest for Man City behind Erling Haaland (24y 237d).