UK Edition
Should Newcastle have tried to beat Man City rather than resort to damage limitation?
As good as Manchester City have become under Pep Guardiola, as exhilarating as they are and as jaw-droppingly brilliant as they can be, it is getting to the point where far too many games they are involved in follow the same repetitive pattern. It is in danger of becoming a little dull.
City are such a special team, a group of record breakers who are so far ahead of their rivals, the title race should be over by the start of the spring. But they are maybe just too good, too strong, too formidable. They have turned the mighty into the meek, supposedly challenging fixtures into cake walks.
This was an encounter Newcastle United said they were looking forward to, but as hard as they worked, as disciplined as they were, there was little enjoyment to be had. Newcastle were diligent but passive. There was no hostility, no physical battle offered, no attempt to unsettle the best team in the country, just containment.
This was the equivalent of a free hit, a game they were expected to lose and where a narrow defeat could be shrugged off with smiles and pats on the back before everyone turned their attention to the far more important clash with Brighton on Saturday.
When St James’ Park is supposed to be one of the toughest away trips of the campaign, regardless of league position or form, that is not something that can be allowed to pass without comment. It certainly does much to strengthen the argument that this is the most competitive league in the world. People did not fall in love with English football because it had one brilliant team.
Newcastle and Man City touch maps
Newcastle are in a relegation battle and are desperate for points, but in front of their own supporters, they were turned into sacrificial lambs. It is not their fault, Newcastle’s manager Rafa Benitez is not to blame for that, this is what City have done. They have crushed their more powerful rivals and all the rest of English football can do is retreat, like a defeated army, burning crops and blowing up bridges, hoping to slow their march, but unable to stop it.
You do not learn much about a team from the bottom half of the table playing against City at the moment other than how well they can defend with everyone positioned inside their own half.
Newcastle deployed a five-man defence and when they did not have the ball – which was most of the time – a five-man midfield in front of them. City’s smug travelling support provoked their hosts by cheering whenever the home team got across the halfway line.
The Magpies held on for half an hour. Goalkeeper Rob Elliot made a couple of excellent saves and City sent a smattering of shots high and wide before Raheem Sterling eventually made the breakthrough. It had been coming. From the start of the game it had been a case of when City scored, not if.
Newcastle are a proud club with supporters who only really require one thing, that the team have a go, that they take the game to the opposition, that they try to win.
But that is not what anyone tries to do against City anymore, not because they do not want to, but because they cannot. Fear has paralysed opposition teams and even a club with Newcastle’s passion and pride are unwilling to do anything to break Guardiola’s spell.
The Verdict
Moment which changed the match
Rolando Aarons was a surprise starter for Newcastle and for most of the match he played like someone trying to get used to the idea. However, he had the home team’s best chance of the game and had his chip not been cleared off the line by Nicolas Otamendi, City might have had to at least work a little harder for their 18th successive league win.
Most influential player: Ilkay Gundogan
Other players have tended to steal the spotlight and win the rave reviews in this magnificent City side, but this was a night in which the German was a calm, reassuring presence who constantly used the ball in the final third.
Crowd rating: 5/10
This should have been the sort of night where St James’ Park was at its raucous, partisan best, but Newcastle supporters were subdued by the sight of their team lining up with ten players behind the ball and the opposition enjoying more than 80 per cent. Sparked into life late on as Newcastle belatedly tried to attack City’s.
Referee rating - Andre Marriner: 6/10
Guardiola had called for more protection for his players from match officials and he got it from this one. Marriner tended to give City the benefit of the doubt on virtually every 50-50 decision even though their dominance of the game meant they rarely needed it.