It’s borderline absurd how much full-backs can transform a team…

I told myself beforehand that this game needed to be approached with balance.

With a pretty poor standing in the league to contend with, panic stations were either not far away or fully and completely engaged, entirely dependent on how daft you are. Today’s game was an oddity, an outlier and one to be treated at arms length.

I strongly suspect Man City are shaping up for one of their rampant campaigns of utter domination, where they set about an unstoppable run of victories that carries them to the title irrespective of how many tears of emotional respect are shed among the London press for Arteta being top in November (again).

Haaland has a mere 32 goals for club and country this season (yes, this SEASON, since August) and is hunting down his 100th Premier League goal, so it looks like the type of team that would get torn apart by Brentford’s Igor Thiago might be ripe for the picking.

So, if Man City were to trot their way to a win here, it was one to take on the chin, with an eye on the performance ahead of next weekend’s debut at the Hill Dickinson, where we could begin to address the real issues of the season. Conversely, victory might well be judged against a backdrop of largely positive home form in all competitions, and once again the focus put on Everton.

The potential for a much needed reboot was boosted considerably by the return of our twin young guns at full back. Hall was expected, Tino less so, but the absence of both Trippier and Krafth from the squad was an unpleasant edge to this, as whatever had occurred there meant zero back up was available. As it turns out, I don’t want to think about back up to Hall and Livramento, as they were both utterly magnificent today. It’s borderline absurd how much full-backs can transform a team and Hall in particular was a standout for the first half.

He had competition though. Our midfield trio has been questioned of late but they were back in the saddle big style for this one. Within seconds of the kick off Joelinton had terrified Gonzalez off the ball and presented Barnes with a golden opportunity. His snapshot was comfortably gathered by Donnarumma and I suspect Harvey shared my fear that the officials would have found something wrong with this, given how uncommitted his effort was. More on him later. Much more.

Whisper it a bit but Haaland is usually useless against Newcastle. One spawny goal in that magnificent 3-3 is all he has to show across seven fixtures between the sides before today. My fear was that Dan Burn’s close attention was the catalyst for this, but despite BDB’s absence, there was still a wealth of competence to snuff out the Norwegian cyborg. He absolutely cacked his duds at the sight of the marauding Nick Pope when put clean through and piff-paffed a sorry wee attempt towards the corner flag while assuming the foetal position and screaming “please don’t hurt my magnificent hair.” That’s how it looked from my seat anyway, and I was there, that’s why I get to write these.

If you support Newcastle (as I suspect you might, reader) and you were watching this game live, it is almost guaranteed you uttered or heard the phrase that was repeated amongst my friends as the first half panned out, with words along the line of “this is going to cost us” the general gist.

It felt inconceivable that United could get away with failing to convert so many chances against such an illustrious opponent and not get floored by the inevitable late sucker punch. Murphy was, is, and has been a magnificent and welcome threat with his sumptuous crosses from the right. He planted one on Big Nick’s head which was brilliantly met but a bit close to Donnarumma, whose stop was still world class. The same pair had another clash as Barnes’ lovely slide rule pass allowed Woltemade to fire in a vicious shot that the Italian goalie kept out with another top save.

Moments late, it felt like absolutely clarity that Newcastle were not meant to get anything from this match as Murphy once again produced a wonderful ball from the right. He beat the entire defence and Donnarumma with a 10/10 cross that presented an open goal to Barnes at the back post. The pace on said cross proved deceptive unfortunately and Harvey contrived to make a right old mess of matters, fluffing wide with his left when smashing in a goal with his right looked infinitely preferable.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Haaland got an actual shot off, bless ‘im. I expected this to be the beginning off the end, but Nick Pope got himself solidly in the way. Barnes’ miss was then effectively cancelled out, as a classy City move saw Cherki return a one-two to Foden in space in the box. Fortunately we seemed to be facing the Phil Foden who turns out for England, as opposed to the decent player who upsets us for Man City, and he fluffed it appallingly wide of the post, the crowning act in what turned out to be a satisfying stinker for young Phillip.

I spent the early stages of the second half anticipating the bum’s rush but United maintained their excellent all-round performance and Barnes was about to tap up and cancel out those misses big time. A lovely bit of interplay between him and Bruno saw the skipper lay it off for Barnes to steer a perfectly placed shot past Donnarumma into the bottom corner.

Wild celebrations followed, but they were cut relatively short, as Man City hit back within four minutes. A corner wasn’t quite cleared and ultimately fell to Ruben Dias, whose shot through the crowded box deflected unfortunately in off Schar.

You could imagine this was where things went horribly wrong, as they have on a few occasions this year, but hopefully we’re talking about this as a tremendous turning point aim the season, as United showed the character to nail a huge win. Five minutes after the equaliser Barnes had his second as Tonali hit a corner that could be a hugely effective weapon, basically aiming for a melee of everyone at the front post. In the resultant havoc, Murphy swung yet another superb outswinger over and Big Nick got his head to it. He found Bruno who headed against the bar from close range, but the rebound came to Barnes, who hooked in despite the attention of about five defenders.

I’ve said for weeks that the recent poor form has to caveated by the loss of our magnificent full backs and both were utterly outstanding, so it was disappointing to see Hall succumb to cramp. The attacking outlet he gives down that left hand side is invaluable and his ability to retain the ball under pressure and play out of what appears to be no space whatsoever is astounding. Hopefully the cramp is just short term for today and he’s in that left back spot every week for the next ten years now.

Botman replacing Hall turned into a decent bit of game management, as a solid back three was rarely troubled. Howe then went ultra protective, with Willock replacing Barnes and Elanga used as a counter attacking weapon, replacing Woltemade up front and repeatedly gaining ground by scampering off to the Gallowgate as Man City attacks were snuffed out.

The eight minutes of injury time felt a tad excessive, but Man City had a right old whinge after our second that led to a lengthy VAR review against Bruno for offside, a bit reminiscent of when the Check Tiote howitzer was criminally chalked off against these because they whined about it. This one was not and United secured a very very welcome win.

This was only our second Premier League win against Man City in twenty years, and our third in an horrendous run at Gallowgate, that has seen these visitors win 13 out of the 21 games in that period. It was also Eddie Howe’s first ever league victory over Man City and Guardiola, including his time at Bournemouth. Nice to get another monkey off our back but we need to capitalise here.

Looking across all competitions, this was our sixth straight home win and eighth in total on Tyneside this season. Things at SJP have gone well, albeit that no Premier League performances have reached the standards of this win. It is vital now that this form is taken on the road, as our inaugural appearance at the Hill Dickinson stadium needs to also see the seasonal debut of three points away. Today’s victory merely saw us consolidate 14th place but many sides above are well within striking range. There is of course the small matter of Marseille in the Champions League next up, but both matches have the potential to kick on from this game, corrections for a season that was in danger of drifting.

Some fine performances across the team were vindication for both players and manager who had found themselves in the crosshairs of the over-reactionary types in our fanbase and the hope has to be this kicks off a run that will shut some people right up. I will report next week from Everton, where we may well find out a lot more about the way things are heading.

Newcastle 2 Manchester City 1 – Saturday 22 November 2025 5.30pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Barnes 63, 70

Man City:

Dias 68

Possession was Newcastle 32% Man City 68%

Total shots were Newcastle 9 Man City 17

Shots on target were Newcastle 5 Man City 4

Corners were Newcastle 5 Man City 9

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 15 Man City 41

Newcastle team v Man City:

Pope, Livramento, Thiaw, Schar, Hall (Botman 77), Bruno, Joelinton, Tonali, Jacob Murphy, Woltemade (Willock 85), Barnes (Elanga 85)

Subs:

Ramsdale, Ruddy, Alex Murphy, Neave, Miley, Ramsey

You can follow the author on BlueSky @bigjimwinsalot.bsky.social