Newcastle’s recent slide left them 15th in the Premier League at kick off but, by the end of an always absorbing, sometimes almost anarchic, evening they had ascended to Cloud Nine.
It is very hard to argue that Eddie Howe is not an elite coach – what price he ends up eventually being poached by Liverpool as Arne Slot’s successor? – but, until this watershed win, his record against Pep Guardiola was pretty dismal. In 16 previous Premier League matches against Guardiola’s Manchester City, with Bournemouth and Newcastle, Howe had lost 14 and drawn two. All that changed as, with Harvey Barnes scoring twice, his players dealt a potentially debilitating blow to City’s title hopes. Guardiola’s side now sit third, four points behind Arsenal and one in arrears of Chelsea.
Although the visitors frequently shone on the ball here, Newcastle were better out of possession as Howe revelled in the sight of his nemesis coming undone on the transition and Erling Haaland malfunctioning in the face of Malick Thiaw’s marking. “It all came together today,” he said. “It was a really high level game. I hope it’s the turning point we’re looking for.”
Video Assistant Referee (VAR) reviews decreed two potential City penalties should not be awarded but, despite making a beeline for the referee, Sam Barrott, at the final whistle, Guardiola was, outwardly, sanguine. “Everything is fine with the referee,” he said, after claiming he did not see the incidents in questions. “VAR knows perfectly.” Turning serious he added: “Newcastle are a top side with top players and a top manager, there was a momentum shift and, ultimately, we could not win.”
Haaland spurned a wonderful early opening during an initial 45 minutes punctuated by a series of chances missed by both sides. With the Norwegian clean through, everyone waited for him to round Nick Pope but, for once, his robotic reliability in front of goal vanished and he hashed an attempt to lift the ball over the goalkeeper.
Shortly afterwards the growing nervousness among home fans very nearly turned to celebration as Nick Woltemade rose to meet a gloriously looping delivery from the impressive Tino Livramento but his header was kept out by a stunning save from Ginaluigi Donnarumma.
City demanded a penalty following a challenge from Fabian Schär – who played well as he returned to the starting XI in place of Sven Botman – on Phil Foden but a VAR review disagreed.
By half-time VAR had also decided that Thiaw did not, after all, handle a Jeremy Doku shot and Donnarumma had again done well to dive low to divert a Woltemade strike. Even so, it might have been different had the £70m striker calibrated that shot a little better.
Generally, though, Newcastle were playing much better than in recent weeks. Howe is proud of his capacity for reinvention and here Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães swapped midfield roles, with the latter dropping into the No 6 position and Tonali adopting the No 8 brief.
If this mini reshuffle seemed to suit the outstanding Guimarães – singled out for a “private chat” with an admiring Guardiola at the final whistle – better than an initially subdued Tonali, the wider home gameplan frequently frustrated the visitors with the return of Livramento and Lewis Hall in the full-back positions particularly welcome.
Yet City still had their moments, often initiated by Foden. Not that his finishing was too hot following a sharp exchange of passes with Rayan Cherki that concluded with Cherki cueing Foden up for what should have been a sitter. Significantly that move began with a superlative, defence bisecting ball from the influential Rúben Dias.
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While Newcastle had done enough to be politely applauded off at half-time, Guardiola perhaps used that interval to remind his players that as good as they are at slowing the game down when necessary, at times they needed to move the ball a bit quicker.
City started the second half brightly and it took a brilliantly timed tackle from Thiaw to halt Haaland in his tracks just as the visiting No 9 looked nailed on to make the most of Doku’s high-calibre pass by shooting beyond Pope. Thiaw’s minding of Haaland proved a masterclass.
Ditto Barnes’s finishing. The left winger would almost certainly not have started had Anthony Gordon not failed a late fitness test but here he opened the scoring after playing a cute one-two with Guimarães before atoning for a first half miss by unleashing a first time shot of such power and precision that even Donnarumma proved unequal to it.
Guardiola’s suddenly manic body language spelled implosion but the Catalan was swiftly, if temporarily, calmed. Very shortly after Barnes deposited that opener in the bottom corner, Newcastle failed to clear a corner.
First Doku, then Foden played the ball back into the box and eventually it fell to Dias whose shot flew through Schär’s legs and past an unsighted Pope.
Not that Guardiola could relax. Almost immediately Guimarães’s header rebounded off the bar and Barnes reacted first to volley the rebound home for his sixth goal of the season. Another VAR intervention, exploring a possible offside against Guimarães this time, ensued but the goal stood and Newcastle, by now arranged in a back five, appeared thoroughly renascent. At the 17th top-tier attempt Howe had bested Guardiola.
