Kevin De Bruyne stole the show for Manchester City in a thoroughly entertaining 3-2 win at Newcastle. Bernardo Silva’s excellent improvisation opened the scoring for the visitors but a quickfire double from Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon had Eddie Howe’s side leading at half-time. City penned the hosts in their own box for the entire second half and they finally got the equaliser when De Bruyne fired home on his Premier League return. Oscar Bobb then netted a stoppage-time winner after being picked out by De Bruyne. Express Sport takes a look at all the talking points from St. James’ Park…
Kevin De Bruyne
What a player. De Bruyne has not featured for City in the Premier League since suffering an injury in the opening game of the season but he announced his return with a bang. The Blues were desperately hunting an equaliser when the Belgian was introduced on the 69th minute.
The midfielder took just five minutes to stroke the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box as if he hadn’t been away for a single minute. It was the fourth spectacular goal of the match. Bernardo Silva scored a ridiculous backheel flick from Kyle Walker’s low cross that will certainly be a contender for January goal of the month.
Isak and Gordon also netted delightful curling efforts after each cutting in from the left to flip the game on its head. But it was City who had the last laugh when De Bruyne popped up with the vital strike before setting up Oscar Bobb for a 90th-minute winner.
Irresistible Isak
Isak frightened the City back line, particularly in the first half. The pacey Swede was living on the shoulder of the last defender and continuously broke through when picked out by Bruno Guimaraes.
The 24-year-old scored a brilliant equaliser, curling the ball around Kyle Walker into the far corner. He had other chances too but was denied by the City shot-stopper.
VAR problems
One of the biggest problems with VAR is that delaying the offside call can lead to injuries. City had a huge scare in just the second minute when Ederson went down trying to stop Sean Longstaff’s disallowed goal.
It was obvious that Isak was offside when he burst in behind the defence. The linesman delayed putting up his flag until the striker squared the ball for Longstaff to score.
Ederson clattered into the Newcastle man trying to save the effort but he went down injured and needed treatment, eventually being subbed off on the sixth minute.
City are beatable
For the majority of last season City were an unbeatable juggernaut that never had any chinks in their armour. But this time around they don’t strike the same fear factor into their opponents.
Newcastle were confident from the start that they could get a result to throw another huge twist in the Premier League title race. City have only kept six clean sheets in their 21 league matches. They will always score goals with the wealth of firepower available to Pep Guardiola but while they remain leaky at the other end of the pitch, there is always a chance they may drop points.
In the end, Guardiola can breathe a huge sigh of relief as his side move up to second in the table, two points behind Liverpool.
