What a game. This is the type of game that earns the Premier League the title of the best league in the world, and it looks like Newcastle are here to compete again at long last.
Many fans before the game, myself included (as I said in my match preview) would have been happy just to see Newcastle competing and putting in a solid display. We weren’t expecting to come away with points, we just didn’t want to be pulled apart like we were last season. If anybody says they saw this performance coming, they’re lying. Not even in Eddie Howe’s wildest dreams would he have had us playing that well.
From the back to the front, everyone was up for it today. We were slow to start, going a goal down after Gundogan broke the deadlock on five minutes with the defence looking like they were asleep, but from then on it was a different game completely. Newcastle looked dangerous every time they went forward, and they weren’t just trying to hit City on the counter, they were actually building up attacks and playing their own game of football.
Allan Saint-Maximin has come under a lot of fire lately, and I’m guilty of it too, but today he had his best game in a black and white shirt for a long, long time. He was involved in all three of Newcastle’s goals, putting the ball across the face of goal for Miguel Almiron to bundle in the equaliser with his knee on 28 minutes which was given after a VAR review for a potential offside.
Who was your MOTM against City?
Nick Pope
Allan Saint-Maximin
Miguel Almiron
Other
Eleven minutes later Maxi was at it again, turning Kyle Waker inside out and laying the ball off for Callum Wilson to take a magnificent first touch to set himself before guiding the ball beyond Ederson.
Newcastle went into the break 2-1 up and looking good for their lead and it took less than 10 minutes for them to increase their gap. Saint-Maximin was felled just outside of the box, central to the goal. Kieran Trippier stepped up to ping the free-kick into the top corner.
Following that goal, however, the Champions awoke and quickly pulled two goals back via the “Nordic Meat Shield”, Erling Haaland, and then the equaliser was poked home by Bernardo Silva. From then on it was mostly City, but Newcastle held their nerve and saw the game out.
It could have been a lot different, however, after Kieran Trippier was given a joke of a straight red card which was overturned on review by the referee.
There were many candidates for Man of the Match with Nick Pope making some key stops throughout the match, but were it not for Allan Saint-Maximin, we’d never have notched three goals. Although, if I could give the crowd Man of the Match I would. The Geordies were fantastic today, loud and proud.