When Manchester City won at Anfield, Pep Guardiola declared that all his side could do was breathe down the neck of Arsenal. And if the Premier League leaders are feeling ever more uncomfortable, it is because they can sense their pursuers are ever closer.
The margin is two points now, giving Arsenal all the more reason to rue the two they dropped at Molineux, all the more pressure in Sunday’s North London derby. City are acquiring the momentum Arsenal seem to have mislaid.
And, after Arsenal capitulated at Wolves, City had a player who grasped the opportunity. They have spent around £430m in the last three transfer windows but their catalyst cost nothing. Three midfielders Guardiola has signed in the last 14 months began on the bench, in Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki, while the homegrown Nico O’Reilly started and delivered his first Premier League brace. Strange as it sounds, he is level for goals in 2026 with Erling Haaland. This was the sort of display that, if City become champions, may be bracketed with some of Yaya Toure’s goalscoring displays in past glories.
The life of O’Reilly may yet involve a trip to the World Cup. The life of Guardiola can involve reinventing and reimagining footballers. O’Reilly, a No 10 in his younger days, became a talismanic makeshift left-back. Now he has been recast as a marauding midfielder. “He played full-back, holding midfielder, he can play now in his position,” reflected Guardiola. “What a player. He makes an incredible step. Nico give us in the middle that physicality that we need.”
Meanwhile, Haaland and Omar Marmoush, the split strikers and supposed scorers, became O’Reilly’s suppliers, each registering an assist. The Mancunian’s double showed different sides to his game; for the first, he arrowed in a shot from 18 yards after powering forward to meet Marmoush’s pass; the Egyptian may have been selected as a specialist for such a fixture, given his record of scoring against Newcastle, but instead helped make a goal.
O’Reilly’s second felt the kind Haaland should be scoring. Instead, the Norwegian lofted the cross to the far post and the local lad met it with a towering header. “The assist from Erling was unbelievable,” added Guardiola. Haaland will almost certainly end the season with his third Premier League Golden Boot but now only Bruno Fernandes has more assists in the current campaign.
Antoine Semenyo and Marmoush might have got a third for City while Nick Pope made a 91st-minute double save from Haaland and Phil Foden. None struck, which meant Gianluigi Donnarumma’s terrific 94th-minute stop was needed to deny Harvey Barnes and secure the points.
Yet, amid the tension, there was a predictability to the outcome. City’s fifth straight win in all competitions was a third over Newcastle in 2026. There may be a fourth when they meet in the FA Cup in two weeks. As Newcastle’s last point at the Etihad came in 2006, an extraordinarily unsuccessful run was extended. Nevertheless, they threatened to end it.
At least a 17th straight reverse brought a first top-flight goal here since 2018 and in Eddie Howe’s reign. Lewis Hall squeezed a shot through a crowded box, aided by a deflection off Rodri. It was a landmark goal for the left-back, too; his first in 21 months.
When Newcastle pulled level, City restored their lead inside five minutes. That was an immediate riposte and City’s swift start had suggested they were intent on making a point. They played at a blistering pace. Newcastle struggled in the first half and rallied thereafter. “You have to take into account the game in midweek and the travel,” said Howe, who fielded 10 of the side who started against Qarabag in Azerbaijan three days earlier. “It was a good effort by the lads physically.”
Howe rued the defensive errors for the two goals. Newcastle might have scored two of their own. Dan Burn headed in Sandro Tonali’s free kick and had begun celebrating before he was flagged. It seemed he was pushed into an offside position by Ruben Dias, though Howe did not complain.
Newcastle had another threat, even when under the cosh: Anthony Gordon’s pace on the break rendered him a menace. He drew a fine save from Donnarumma after motoring past Marc Guehi. When he was accelerating beyond Dias, the defender tugged him back, at a cost of a caution. He went off at half-time, the faster Abdukodir Khusanov replacing him. Gordon was less of a threat thereafter. Guardiola’s change worked.
So City left the field to cheers. They entered it to a guard of honour from their 1976 League Cup winners, who beat Newcastle in the final and secured the club’s last major trophy for 35 years. It felt as if it should have been the other way around, the current players forming the guard for their predecessors.
This new-look City side have not won much together. “Seventy per cent of the players have never been in that situation,” noted Guardiola. But perhaps they appear better equipped to cope with it than Arsenal.