Newcastle v Manchester City preview ahead of St James’ Park clash | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Manchester City preview.

Saturday 22nd November – 5.30pm kick-off.

Newcastle United look to get their season back on track this weekend in these crucial make-or-break November and December months.

Hosting the formidable opponents of Manchester City provides the perfect opportunity to achieve a morale boosting result for Eddie Howe’s magpies.

The temperature might be dropping this time of year but the late kick-off in front of two sets of passionate fans should ensure the atmosphere is red hot amongst the biting cold.

The Toon have won two and lost four of their last six league matches. Wins have come at home against Fulham and Nottingham Forest whereas defeats have come against Arsenal (also at home) as well as away to Brighton, West Ham and Brentford. Frustratingly, United scored the first goal in three of these defeats and also scored a late equaliser before losing to Brighton, meaning we’ve dropped a number of points from promising positions. We’ve scored eight goals in these matches and conceded eleven. The six points gained has us languishing in fourteenth place in the league and a win could see us leapfrog Everton into thirteenth.

Man City have won five and lost one of their last six league matches. They’ve scored an impressive fourteen goals and conceded just three in this sequence. They sit second in the Premier League, all results going their way could see them just a point off first-placed Arsenal.

Last time out

Newcastle travelled to Brentford before the international break and were desperately disappointed to leave another away game with a deserved defeat. Things were looking rosy at half-time when a smart finish from Harvey Barnes had opened the scoring and given us a 1-0 interval lead. Unfortunately, the second half was a complete non-event as far as the Toon were concerned. Conceding an equaliser at the start of the second half set the tone for a dreadful forty-five minutes as Dan Burn was sent off for conceding a penalty, whilst Nick Pope was forced off with concussion, Eddie Howe made five late substitutes and Brentford broke away in injury time to seal a 3-1 victory for the bees. That’s now three goalless draws and three poor defeats in six league away games so far this season in a run of away form that needs to be put right if we’re serious about qualifying for another campaign in the Champions League.

Man City hosted Liverpool a fortnight ago and blew the champions away with a fine attacking performance. Pep Guardiola celebrated his one thousandth match as a manager by seeing his team go two goals up at half-time before scoring another in the second half to put the gloss on an incredible 3-0 victory.

Stat attack!

– Newcastle have scored an impressive ten goals in their past six home matches with Manchester City.

-The Toon have beaten City on seven Premier League occasions at St James’ Park.

-The last ten home league matches with Man City have seen one win, four draws and five defeats for the Toon, although we have also knocked them out of the League Cup in that time.

Memorable match

In 2004, Newcastle United royalty Kevin Keegan brought his Man City team to St James’ Park to do battle with Graeme Souness’ NUFC. A fairly uneventful first half saw a 0-0 scoreline at the interval with no indication of the drama that was to unfold in an incredible second forty-five minutes that simply defied belief.

The deadlock was finally broken at the start of the second period when Laurant Robert curled in a perfect free-kick at the Gallowgate End and the points seemed to be in the bag soon after when Shearer smashed home a penalty to make it 2-0. Anyone thinking the game was won was in for a rude awakening as City fought back with two goals in three minutes to level the scores. At 2-2 the pendulum swung back Newcastle’s way when Robbie Elliott flicked a header off the post that crawled over the line to put the Toon back in front. Unbelievably, we still couldn’t keep the citizens at bay and just a few minutes later, it was 3-3, meaning all six goals had been scored in a crazy twenty-eight minute spell. Anyone assuming that would be the end of the drama was in for a shock however as there was still time for one more incredible twist. With the clock ticking past eighty-eight minutes, Olivier Bernard broke into the box and played the ball back to future-blue Craig Bellamy who took a touch and lashed the winner into the bottom corner. Absolutely glorious! Final score Newcastle 4-3 Man City

Played for both

Peter Beardsley was possibly the most naturally talented player to ever represent NUFC in the Premier League era. Enjoying two extraordinary spells at the Toon, he was first signed by Arthur Cox in 1983 for £150,000 and, along with Kevin Keegan, helped guide United to promotion with his twenty goals being a major contributing factor to the Toon’s return to top flight football.

He continued in a similar vein of form as United stayed up the next season, scoring seventeen goals that campaign, including a memorable hat-trick on New Year’s Day in a belting 3-1 win over arch-rivals Sunderland.

He was to spend another two seasons on Tyneside before signing to Liverpool for a national record fee a year after representing England under Sir Bobby at the 1986 World Cup. He scored sixty-one goals for the Toon in his first spell at NUFC but equally exciting was his style of play, older readers will be fondly reminiscing about his famous shuffle where the ball seemed glued to his boots as he effortlessly took on and beat a number of players at a time. Had this been the end of the story then that would be remarkable enough but ‘Peter the Great’ as he was affectionately known, was to make a sensational return six years later when former teammate Kevin Keegan decided to manage him in a new look NUFC that had designs on the title. Signed for one and half million pounds, he scored an incredible twenty-five goals in his first season and formed an electric strike partnership with Andy Cole as Newcastle qualified for the UEFA Cup. In his four seasons during his second spell at the Toon, he captained the club as we achieved four top-six finishes and were desperately close to winning the title for the first time in sixty-nine years. He scored one hundred and seventeen goals in three hundred and twenty-appearances for the black and whites. Near the end of his career, he had a short loan spell at Manchester City, playing six games but failing to find the back of the net.

Darren Huckerby only played twice for NUFC. Despite having made a good impression on fans in his performance against Chelsea in a 1996 FA Cup tie, he never played competitively for us again and was loaned out to Millwall before being sold to Coventry and then playing for Leeds. He joined Man City in 2000 and played two and a half seasons at the blues, scoring the winner against the Toon on their return to the top flight in 2002.

Antoine Sibierski was an underwhelming signing for fans when he was bought from Man City by Glenn Roeder in 2006. Despite this, the Frenchman had a knack of scoring very important goals, including a winner on his debut away to Levadia Tallinn, as well as the only goal in a six-pointer at home to Portsmouth and a late strike to beat Fenerbahce in the UEFA Cup. A string of fine performances coupled with his eye for goal saw many supporters hoping he would stay but he wanted a two-year contract extension and decided to leave for Wigan when he was only offered the one. He ingratiated himself further to the Toon Army when scoring in the same week for the latics against both Middlesbrough and Sunderland. Before signing for the Toon, he had played ninety-two times for Man City, scoring eleven goals.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 3-1 defeat away at Brentford:

“There is no excuse for it. It is a disappointing performance and result, and we have to take that on the chin. We defended their throws and set-pieces well in the first half, and then it went from bad to worse with the penalty, we never really recovered. The analysis will take place and it is going to be a long international break. We need to find a solution to the away form. We need to stick together. We still feel the love and support of the supporters. This group has got the character to come back. My initial feeling after that game today is different to West Ham. I thought the players were there, I thought they were present, I thought they gave everything to the game physically, but I think it was clear, if you watch Newcastle regularly, we were lacking in confidence today”.

Pep Guardiaola having beaten Liverpool 3-0:

“Teams win the Premier League when the team is growing every month. When that happens you arrive at the end fighting for the title. We talk a lot and the feeling that we are in that way. It’s nice to still have the feeling that we are back in terms of many things. I have the feeling the energy is back.”

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

For further info and/or to donate online go HERE.

There can be no denying that Man City will be red hot favourites for this one.

The Toon however have been much better at home this season than away and we tend to raise our game against the bigger teams.

Backed by a crowd who have enjoyed some extra time in local ale houses, the atmosphere will be absolutely raucous. This will spur United on and we’ll race into a two-goal lead. Unfortunately, Man City will be too strong to go down without a fight and battle back to earn a score draw that both teams will be proud of: Newcastle 2-2 Man City.