Man City vs Newcastle

Follow Sportsmail's live blog for the Premier League clash between Manchester City and Newcastle, where Pep Guardiola's side will aim to close the gap on ...

Newcastle are in desperate need of points if they want to close the gap between themselves and Tottenham. Manchester City will make a late call on whether John Stones and Aymeric Laporte will be fit enough to feature this afternoon. They have kept just four clean sheets at the Etihad in 12 Premier League games this season. Eddie Howe is still looking to secure his first win as a manager at the Etihad. I made the decision to concentrate on players that are committed to Newcastle. He has that ability to take the ball to use the counterattack to drive the ball. It seems plausible that he could reach the target today - having provided seven assists against Newcastle, with five of those coming at the Etihad. He's made six changes to the team that beat Bristol City in the FA Cup. For the benefit of the group, I’ve made that call.' 'I think it is important that I am getting goals and assists in important situations. Rodri will also return to the midfield while Kalvin Phillips is benched. He returns to the starting XI for the first time since August.

Phil Foden's superb solo goal helps Manchester City see off Newcastle and ensures the defending champions keep up the pressure on Premier League leaders ...

- Away4 - Home8 - Corners - Away2 - Home3 - Away5 - Home11 - Shots - Away43% - Home57% - Possession [Reaction to Man City v Newcastle](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/64400056) [What did you make of Manchester City's performance?

ETIHAD STADIUM, MANCHESTER — Phil Foden scored a superb solo goal before Bernardo Silva came off the bench to give Manchester City a hard fought and vital ...

But adding the the best goalscorer in Europe to the best team in England over the past five years has not led to a City procession. Walker knocks an awful pass back towards the City goal and Rodri has to make a last-ditch intervention to deny Wilson. City break from that attack, with De Bruyne to the fore. That opportunity came from Trippier getting forward to deliver a dangerous cross that Akanji cleared, thus leaving room for the hosts to break down the Newcastle right. He's furious with the referee for not getting a yellow card out and the Newcastle fans get to do their pantomime stuff. Burn again and the Newcastle man wins this round, getting a vital block after De Bruyne found the City goalscorer. After all that, the City striker is booked, perhaps for being the biggest and daftest lad in the middle of all the daftness. 53rd minute: A City attack ends with Grealish swinging a shot over the bar from 25 yards. Thundering block tackle from Dias and Ederson gets to the loose ball just before the Sweden striker. 81st minute: Haaland takes his latest whack from Lascelles and the City fans chant his name. However, the quartet's shortcoming in possession compared to Stones, Laporte and teenager Rico Lewis means more of that sort of defending has to be done because the ball keeps coming back in dangerous areas. Another of the subs, Alexander Isak, was denied by a pair of brave challenges from Ruben Dias and Ederson.

As Kevin De Bruyne offered a decoy, running ahead of him, Foden slalomed towards goal, past Dan Burn, Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes. Sven Botman finally ...

“I think I’ve got a team full of warriors, really competitive players, desperate to win. “These three games, each one in a different competition, will define our season,” said Guardiola. The first nine games of the season saw Haaland score 16 of City’s 33 goals and the team pick up 23 points. “Come back to your principles and step by step you will be back and now he’s scoring goals. “It was a brilliant action by Phil,” added Guardiola. “I said, ‘What happened to you Phil is absolutely what might happen.

Manchester City have the chance to close in on Arsenal in the Premier League title race when they face Newcastle this afternoon.The Citizens are curre.

[HERE for the live stream](https://talksport.com/radioplayer/live/index.html?interstitial=true). [Newcastle](https://talksport.com/sport/football/team/113114/newcastle-united/), having won their last 13 [Premier League](https://talksport.com/football/premier-league/) games against the Toon at the Etihad. [Citizens](https://talksport.com/sport/football/team/113098/manchester-city/) are currently five points behind the [Gunners](https://talksport.com/sport/football/team/113203/arsenal/) but can cut that gap to two before the north Londoners host Bournemouth later on today.