Newcastle United fell to a 1-0 defeat against Manchester City on Saturday evening.
A first-half strike from Julian Alvarez was enough to seal the points for Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. It could have been worse for Newcastle United, had Erling Haaland been able to convert one of his chances to kill the game.
Despite the narrow scoreline, Eddie Howe’s side were deservedly beaten. Whilst Newcastle defended diligently throughout, they were unable to muster much of an attacking threat of their own. Whilst the hosts dominated possession and created a number of very presentable chances, Newcastle could only manage one shot on target within the 90 minutes.
Of course, reigning Premier League champions Manchester City are always going to be tough to beat. However, given that Guardiola’s side played a midweek match in Athens, whilst Howe was able to spend all week preparing for this Premier League clash, the Magpies will have wanted to impose themselves on the match to a greater extent than they did.
Newcastle were brilliant going forward when they dismantled Aston Villa at St James’ Park on the opening day of the season. That free-flowing attacking verve, and inspired creative decision making was absent this time around.
The result aside, Howe will have been disappointed that Newcastle couldn’t make life more difficult for Manchester City.
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Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, the Newcastle boss said, “I was frustrated we didn’t create more. The last pass was missing and we had a couple of shots from range but nothing glaring and that’s the frustration.”
Having defended so well for large parts of the match, it will be especially frustrating for Howe that his attackers couldn’t follow suit and produce a memorable away result for the Magpies.
Newcastle face Liverpool at St James’ Park on Sunday. They will need to rediscover their cutting edge in that game in order to underline their top four credentials against a side they’ll likely spend the season in a battle for Champions League qualification with.