Man City v Newcastle LIVE: Result as Erling Haaland injury blots win after Omar Marmoush hat-trick
Manchester City pulled away from Newcastle United in the Premier League after a sensational first-half hat-trick by January signing Omar Marmoush
Omar Marmoush scored a sensational first-half hat-trick to sink Newcastle United as the Egyptian announced himself at Manchester City.
Substitute James McAtee added a late fourth as City made light work of their visitors, although the day was not perfect for Pep Guardiola as Erling Haaland limped off near the end with what appeared to be a right knee injury, just four days before City’s Champions League play-off second leg in Madrid.
The result propelled City to fourth in the table and saw Newcastle slip back to seventh.
GOAL! Man City 1-0 Newcastle (Marmoush, 18 min)
...But it doesn’t last long!
A long ball from Ederson clears Newcastle’s back line – Trippier badly mistimes his header – and Omar Marmoush is in on goal. He steadies himself before lobbing the stranded Dubravka with a bouncing ball. A smart finish, and that’s Marmoush’s first goal for City.
Man City 0-0 Newcastle
15 min: Marmoush smashes over the bar from just inside the box. Newcastle are limiting to City to very little, thus far.
Gonzalez filling Rodri role
No alarms for Khusanov so far, this is very different from the Chelsea game for him. There has also been a decent start by Gonzalez: a first - and obvious - impression is that he has the height and athleticism City have lacked in central midfield since Rodri was injured. He looks like a defensive midfielder: time will tell how good a one he is. But Ilkay Gundogan is probably relieved he has a more physical presence alongside him.
Man City 0-0 Newcastle
8 min: Savinho drives down the wing and cross towards the six-yard box, where Hall gets rid. Little of note in this opening exchanges.
Man City 0-0 Newcastle
3 min: City are probing early, with lots of the ball, but no sights of goal as yet. Guardiola is already animatedly redirecting his players who are not quite carrying out his instructions.
Kick-off! Man City 0-0 Newcastle
We’re underway. Newcastle are in their away strip – the maroon and navy horizontal stripes.
Man City v Newcastle
The players are out on the pitch at the Etihad Stadium... here we go! This should be a good game.
Haaland captains City for first time
Some interesting team news as Erling Haaland captains City for the first time. There is added intrigue as the team includes Ilkay Gundogan, one of the five captains in the squad - the others are Kevin de Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Rodri - but the Treble-winning skipper doesn't get the armband today. There are plenty of changes for City, with injuries one reason and the second leg against Real Madrid another. Nico Gonzalez gets his first Premier League start, Abdukodir Khusanov his second. He will hope it goes better than the first.
The race for top four
As mentioned before, the club that finishes in fifth is likely to get a place in the Champions League next season, easing some of the competition for places at the top.
But as it stands there are arguably six sides fighting for third, fourth and fifth, with Nottingham Forest sitting in third, four points above Chelsea currently.
Today’s game sees fifth-paced City face sixth-placed Newcastle, with both teams on the same points.
And it’s a high-flying Bournemouth side who are one point and one place below the Magpies, with Aston Villa three points further behind in eighth.
This is how the table looks currently:
3rd – Nottingham Forest, 47 points
4th – Chelsea, 43 points
5th – Manchester City, 41 points
6th – Newcastle, 41 points
7th – Bournemouth, 40 points
8th – Aston Villa, 37 points
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