Nico O’Reilly’s double helped Manchester City to a hard-fought 2-1 win over Newcastle to move within two points of leaders Arsenal in this enthralling Premier League title chase.
Pep Guardiola has been deliberately coy about Man City’s title chances so far this season, a stance that is surely set to change in the coming weeks. Even he must now accept that his side are perfectly placed to take this race all the way to the finale in May.
City are actually the only team in the league on a winning run greater than one game, form that has seen them eat up a nine-point deficit to Arsenal, who play Tottenham live on Sky Sports on Sunday.
O’Reilly was the star of the show with two goals either side of a Lewis Hall deflected effort, all scored in a frantic 13-minute period in the first half. Hall’s strike was Newcastle’s first league goal at the Etihad since 2018, but Eddie Howe’s side lacked sufficient quality in the final third, not managing a shot on target in the second period.
Anthony Gordon, fresh from scoring four in Europe midweek, and Joe Willock made Gianluigi Donnarumma work but he barely looked troubled. The visitors’ xG value did not get above 0.4. City, meanwhile, were denied five times by Nick Pope and should have made the scoreline far more comfortable. Their title hopes are well and truly alive.
More to follow.
Story of the match in stats…
What’s coming up in the Premier League?
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com
