Newcastle United were humiliated by Manchester City on Saturday.
Eddie Howe was hoping that his Newcastle United side could carry on the momentum of wins in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup into their important Premier League clash.
Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite as Omar Marmoush scored a hat-trick to give Man City the advantage in the Champions League race.
There were injury concerns ahead of the game for Dan Burn and Anthony Gordon but both players started in the defeat. Newcastle were without Sven Botman who continues to recover from a knee issue.
A silver lining for the Magpies is that Harvey Barnes was named on the bench for the game – the winger has been missing for the past month after coming off against Bromley.
Newcastle’s defeat to Man City means they failed to capitalise on Chelsea’s loss to Brighton on Friday which saw former Toon ace Yankuba Minteh bag a brace.
Pep Guardiola’s side did the damage in the first half which gave Newcastle little chance to fight back.
Alan Shearer knew that as well – the Newcastle legend took to social media to voice his displeasure in the performance.
Alan Shearer blasts ‘pathetic’ Newcastle
It has been a long time since Shearer has been so despondent about Newcastle. The Magpies’ sensational run of form in the new year gave fans hope that the Premier League season could be a successful one.
The defeat means that Newcastle have won just two of their last five league games. Following Newcastle’s defeat to Fulham at the beginning of February, Shearer admitted Newcastle were ‘really flat’. It was the same case against the defending Champions on Saturday.
At half-time, Shearer took to X and said: “Lost every challenge. A pathetic 45 minutes from Newcastle.”
In December, Shearer took aim at Newcastle’s ‘big players’ who do not turn up for important games. While he did not name them, the likes of Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes were believed to be the players that Newcastle’s record goalscorer was referring to.Newcastle messed up big time against Man City
Going to the Etihad was always going to be difficult – Newcastle have not won away to Man City in over a decade.
However, Saturday was a big opportunity to prove the doubters wrong and take advantage of a Man City side that has been lacklustre at times this season.
Ahead of the game, Guardiola singled out Guimaraes as one of Newcastle’s many threats. His midfield was able to contain him without issue.
Howe is aiming for Europe this season – the defeat puts them at risk of dropping out of the European spots when the top four was in sight.
The Magpies have a tough run of fixtures in the next few weeks including Nottingham Forest and Liverpool before the Carabao Cup final – Newcastle must now regroup and focus on bouncing back when they welcome former players Elliot Anderon and Chris Wood back to St James’ Park in a week.
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