Pep Guardiola said Manchester City showed the heart of champions to fight back to beat Newcastle 3-2 on Saturday thanks to a Kevin De Bruyne masterclass on his return to Premier League action.
The Belgian came off the bench to score and set up Oscar Bobb’s stoppage-time winner to announce his comeback from a five-month injury layoff in style.
Victory takes City up to second in the table, two points behind Liverpool, and ominously poised to strike when they return from a two-week winter break, by which point Erling Haaland may be fit to join De Bruyne in terrorising opposition defences.
“That was really good, sometimes it is better winning that way,” said Guardiola.
“We played with a huge personality. They showed me they want to be there, to fight until the end that they want to retain the title.”
A cruel late twist for Newcastle saw Eddie Howe’s men succumb to a sixth defeat in their last seven Premier League games.
But a point would have been more than Newcastle deserved after being thoroughly outplayed but for two goals in two first-half minutes that threatened to frustrate the champions.
“Their quality told in the end. De Bruyne is obviously a world-class player,” said Howe, who was publicly backed by the club’s chief executive Darren Eales this week.
“There’s not a lot wrong with our performances. You can see today we are a top team. The group is in a good place, I don’t see any negativity. I see hurt because we aren’t winning and that’s what we’re here to do.”
A frantic encounter got off to a disrupted start as City goalkeeper Ederson was forced off injured in his attempt to stop Sean Longstaff putting the ball into the net.
The goal was ruled out as Alexander Isak was clearly offside in the build-up and City were furious the flag was not raised earlier to prevent any damage being done to the Brazilian.
Manchester United failed to welcome the club’s new co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to Old Trafford with a win as Tottenham twice came from behind to claim a 2-2 draw on Sunday.
Ratcliffe was in attendance for the first time since agreeing a deal to take a 25 percent stake of the English giants for $1.3 billion.
Goals for United forwards in the Premier League have been in short supply at Old Trafford this season but both Rasmus Hojlund and Marcus Rashford struck in the first half, either side of Richarlison’s equaliser.
Rodrigo Bentancur’s strike in the first minute of the second half levelled the scores once more.
A point moves Tottenham level with north London rivals Arsenal but leaves them still outside the top four on goal difference.
But they will be the happier with the draw as they remain eight points ahead of United, who edge up to seventh.
Ratcliffe declared before kick-off that taking a share in his boyhood club is the most exciting investment he has been involved in.
But the British billionaire, wo was sat alongside legendary former United manager Alex Ferguson in the directors’ box, got an early introduction to the rollercoaster ride of owning a football club.
Erik ten Hag’s men desperately needed the three points to reel in Spurs in the race for a place in next season’s Champions League.
And the Red Devils could not have wished for a better start.
Hojlund took 15 games to score a Premier League goal after his £72 million ($92 million) move from Atalanta.
But the Dane now has two in as many appearances in the English top flight as he blasted a loose ball high past Guglielmo Vicario after just three minutes.
Tottenham were without captain Son Heung-min, who is off leading South Korea’s bid for glory at the Asian Cup, and Dejan Kulusevski due to illness.
Those absences forced Ange Postecoglou’s hand in throwing new loan signing Timo Werner straight into his starting line-up.
The German struggled during a previous spell in England with Chelsea, but was unfortunate not to have a debut to remember when his goalbound header was flicked to safety by Jonny Evans.
From the resulting corner, Bentancur’s header was cleared off the line by Diogo Dalot.
United, though, did not learn their lesson from Tottenham’s set-piece threat as Richarlison nodded in another wicked delivery from Pedro Porro to equalise.
Spurs then took control of the game, but still found themselves behind by half-time.
Rashford had not scored at Old Trafford since May, but has shown glimpses of finding his form in recent weeks.
The England international exchanged a one-two with Hojlund then coolly slotted into the far corner.
Spurs should still have levelled before the break as Werner dragged a good chance on the counter-attack wide before Cristian Romero headed another dangerous corner onto the crossbar.
The visitors had to wait less than a minute after the interval to strike back again as Werner teed up Bentancur to fire past Andre Onana at his near post.
Both sides had chances to win it as Richarlison curled an effort too close to Onana.
At the other end, Scott McTominay missed a glorious chance to snatch all three points when he headed over when unmarked with practically the last touch of the game.
With AFP
