Newcastle United vs Manchester City
Date: 30/11/2019
K/O: 12:30
Venue: St. James’s Park
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
TV: BT Sport
A trip to Tyneside beckons for Manchester City, who usurped Frank Lampard’s Chelsea to third place after beating the Blues at the Etihad last weekend.
Newcastle United, currently sitting 14th in the league table, will be looking for a repeat of last season’s performance, in which they came back from a deficit 29 seconds into the game to stun the champions in an excellent exhibition of transition and opportunism.
In stark contrast to the time when a pre-season takeover of the Magpies seemed nearly certain, the start of the season brought a dismal aura to St. James’s Park, following the departure of Rafael Benitez. However, the past few weeks under Steve Bruce have been encouraging, putting aside the 2-0 loss to his former club Aston Villa on Monday night.
Bruce is slowly transforming Newcastle into a slightly more dynamic, free-flowing side than we were accustomed to seeing under Rafa, with wins against West Ham and Bournemouth showing signs of promise.
On the other hand, Manchester City seemed to have stagnated just a tad, with the enthusiasm and cutting-edge quality of last season not quite being on display since the game against Atalanta (home) in the Champions League.
Having just been bestowed the honour of being the 2nd highest valued sporting side in the world right now – following a $500m investment by Unites States-based private equity firm Silver Lakes – and soon thereafter welcoming Indian Super League side Mumbai City FC to the City Football Group, Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Pep Guardiola will be quite keen to start this chapter off on a pleasant note; victory on this ground will serve the purpose.
Match Statistics
Manchester City have put the ball in the back of Newcastle’s net in each of their prior 21 Premier League games. If they score on Saturday, it would equal their highest ever such streak of 22, against Fulham.
Newcastle United will be looking to become the 4th successive side to have drawn first blood against this Manchester City side. The Cityzens longest run of conceding first is 5 matches, dating back to 2012.
Only Leicester City (3) have conceded fewer home goals than Newcastle United (4) this season.
Manchester City comprise half the sides to have found the back of the net in each of their away games in the league this season (Liverpool, unsurprisingly being the other).
A win for Newcastle would mean their first-ever back-to-back triumph against the blue half of Manchester in over 15 years
Team News
Newcastle United
Matt Ritchie has been ruled out till January after undergoing a 2nd surgery on the ankle that he injured in August.
Sean Longstaff served his suspension against Aston Villa, and is likely to slot straight back into central midfield.
Centre halves Jamaal Lascelles and Florian Lejeune remain absent, and while their partner-in-(protecting)-crime Fabian Schar made the bench against Villa, he could start from the get-go on Saturday’s early kick-off
Manchester City
Sergio Aguero limped off in the win against Chelsea, and Guardiola later confirmed that he would miss the Manchester Derby on December 8th, obviously ruling him out of this present game.
Rodri looked a tad sluggish against Chelsea, and was surprisingly started, and then unsurprisingly taken off midweek against Shakhtar Donetsk. It might be prudent for him to sit this one out, but with Fernandinho likely to start at centre back once more, we cannot be sure if the Spaniard will be allowed to rest
Bernardo Silva served his suspension against Chelsea, and is available for selection once more
Leroy Sane, Aymeric Laporte and Oleksandr Zinchenko continue to remain long-term absentees
Predicted Starting XIs
Newcastle United (5-4-1): Dubravka; Yedlin, Schar, Clark, Dummett, Willems; Almiron, Longstaff, Hayden, Allen Saint-Maximin; Joelinton
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Stones, Fernandinho, Benjamin Mendy; Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva; Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Sterling
Prediction: Newcastle United 1-2 Manchester City
This game seems too close to call, given how Newcastle are always up for a game against Man City. Despite City’s undeniable quality, the wow-factor has been missing, and if Newcastle are up for an afternoon of relentless pressing and closing down, there may be something in store for them. Despite the fact that Sergio Aguero will be unavailable to torment the Newcastle defence, I feel that City have it in themselves to come up with an answer to the hurdles that Newcastle will inevitably put up before them.
