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AAfter having two players affected by the coronavirus at Christmas, a routine win was as good as Pep Guardiola would have hoped for as his Manchester City team rose to their highest position of the season.
Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres scored on both sides of the break as Guardiola’s team returned to winning ways at home after losing points to West Bromwich Albion, taking them to fifth place in the table. Guardiola’s team has yet to reach the top and does not seem complete without Sergio Agüero on the field, which he achieved during the final 13 minutes as he intensifies his recovery from injury.
They were also left without Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus after their positive tests, but Newcastle also have a miserable record on City turf and didn’t offer much in the pouring rain at Etihad Stadium.
It was Joao Cancelo, Walker’s replacement, who took his opportunity and participated in both goals and showed the intention of attacking on the right wing and in the central positions.
With two games in 72 hours, City did enough to keep Steve Bruce’s side at arm’s length and should have added more to their tally to improve their surprisingly poor scoring record. They are still the lowest scorers in the upper half of the table.
While the entire Premier League has been dealing with playing in a pandemic, it has hit City and Newcastle more than others, most notably because of the coronavirus outbreak in Bruce’s team just after last month’s international break.
They have been six games without captain Jamaal Lascelles and the pace of Alain Saint-Maximin and it has been a case of passing the festive season and seeing where they are in 2021. Guardiola has worn a coach look all season trying to get through the season. In a gray hoodie and the hood of his parka pulled up to protect himself from the rain, it looked like he would prefer a winter break to two games in three days.
It’s easy to forget that Guardiola lost his mother earlier this year after she contracted the coronavirus. When he says that this season the joy has been taken away from the game, you should listen to the coach who brought us the most beautiful football.
His team has reflected his state of mind for much of the season, achieving results without looking like his old dominant self. Walker and Jesus were the last coronavirus cases to hit the City team, but they also tested positive for Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and Gundogan on the eve of the season, while Oleksandr Zinchenko needed to self-quarantine after an outbreak in the team from Ukraine during an international break.
On paper, it was a little trouble for them in recent history, with City winning 11 in a row, while Newcastle had gone two decades without a win at Etihad, since the days when Alan Shearer wore the number 9 jersey. instead of Joelinton.
It was Joelinton just up front and Callum Wilson, his leading scorer, on the bench, which signaled Bruce feeling it would be a night to stop the flow of City’s attack. The resistance lasted less than 14 minutes as City made their way through Newcastle’s five-man defense line for the first time in the match, aided by Cancelo entering central midfield from the defensive area.
He finished with Raheem Sterling in front of goal with four defenders in the six-yard box, so he fumbled the ball for Gundogan to get into the bottom corner. Kevin De Bruyne was trying to find angles to prepare his teammates with direct passes, then he tried it himself with a center that sank into the far corner until Karl Darlow moved away. He was denied again when Torres, playing as a forward, sent him clean, but Darlow remained patient and blocked when the Belgian playmaker tried to give him a nutmeg.
Newcastle remained a threat, while the lead was a single goal, with Jacob Murphy attempting to counterattack for the visitors, encouraged by West Brom earning a point in the last game at the Etihad.
But the second goal would come at 55 minutes and was again created by Cancelo. This time he made his way around Miguel Almirón to earn a loose punt. His cross was stopped by Federico Fernández, but he simply pushed Torres to hit.
Sterling should have added another goal, but lost his foot just a couple of yards from goal, with Bernardo Silva hitting the post with the rebound.
Aguero came off the bench and should have added a goal from close range, but Darlow saved well. He then thought he should have had a penalty when Darlow brought him down, but the VAR did not award the penalty.
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