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Manchester City drew with Newcastle United 2-2 in today’s early kick-off Premier League match at St. James’ Park, leaving them trailing league leaders Liverpool by 8 points. Pep Guardiola’s men looked strangely flat throughout the game despite bossing possession and having far more chances than the Magpies, but in the end Steve Bruce’s side fought for every ball and held firm.
Raheem Sterling opened the scoring for City after 22 minutes, capitalising on a bit of a lucky bounce to finish off a move started by David Silva, but just three minutes later, Newcastle were level when Jetro Willems smashed Miguel Almiron’s cutback into the corner of the net.
City regained the lead through a Kevin De Bruyne piledriver with 82 minutes gone, but with two minutes of normal time remaining, Jonjo Shelvey smashed a right-footed shot into the net following a cleverly laid-off free-kick to equalise. Sterling then could’ve won the game very late on, but his weak shot hit was too close to Magpies keeper Martin Dubravka.
Here are the top three performers from today’s draw between Newcastle United and Manchester City.
#3 Federico Fernandez
All of Newcastle’s defenders were fantastic today, as Steve Bruce set his team up with a 5-man back-line in order to counter Manchester City’s potent attacking firepower. With that in mind, goalscorer Jetro Willems would’ve been a fair pick for this article, but I felt that central defender Federico Fernandez was the Mapgies’ most outstanding performer.
The Argentine defender made 2 successful tackles, 10 successful clearances and 4 interceptions, putting in better statistics than any of his teammates, and on more than one occasion he also burst through the City lines from the back and helped to set up some of Newcastle’s counter-attacks.
The Magpies’ defence was put under some immense pressure from one of the toughest sides to face today, and for the most part, they held them off. Fernandez was a massive part of that and deserves tremendous credit for his performance.
#2 Kevin De Bruyne
On a day in which Manchester City’s usually flawless attack appeared somewhat toothless, Kevin De Bruyne was the standout player for Pep Guardiola’s side. Of course, it helped that he uncorked one of the goals of the season late in the game, but even prior to that, he was seemingly operating on a different clip to even his illustrious teammates.
The Belgian playmaker – who has registered the most assists in the Premier League thus far this season – put together 6 key passes in today’s game, more than the amount put together by his teammates David Silva and Raheem Sterling combined, and at times, it felt like he was the only City player really attempting to make some magic happen.
And that magic came in the 82nd minute, as De Bruyne capitalised on a headed clearance to thump a right-footed thunderbolt into the net, via the underside of the crossbar. It was a goal fine enough to win any game – even though that wasn’t the case here – and it’s hard to think of a better one thus far in this season. This was another tremendous showing from the brilliant Belgian.
#1 Jonjo Shelvey
Jonjo Shelvey will probably be given a lot of credit for his equalising goal alone; it was a brilliantly taken strike from the midfielder, although it must be said that he was given far too much room to pick his spot by the Manchester City defence. But outside of his goal, Shelvey performed admirably today as Newcastle’s captain, and worked hard throughout the game despite his side lacking possession.
Newcastle looked dangerous throughout the game with their attacks on the break, but often, the attacking trio of Joelinton, Miguel Almiron and in particular, Allan Saint-Maximin were very wasteful in possession, either running into blind alleys or picking the wrong pass. With more intelligent attacks, the Magpies could have easily won this game.
Steve Bruce should still be proud of Shelvey’s performance, though. Despite City limiting his side to just 23% of the possession, Shelvey completed 29 passes, with 86% accuracy, and provided one key pass. His defensive work was also strong, as he registered 3 successful tackles, 3 clearances and 4 interceptions. He’s still inconsistent, but this was one of his best performances of the season so far.
