Newcastle United welcome Manchester City to St. James’ Park on Sunday, with both sides aiming to maintain their unbeaten start to the Premier League season.
Alongside Arsenal, Man City are one of only two teams to have won their first two games. As a result, they are sitting pretty at the top of the table.
🔙 Our 2-1 win against Sunday's opponents from 2019🔜 #NEWMCI pic.twitter.com/k99kPKWJkD— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) August 17, 2022
🔙 Our 2-1 win against Sunday's opponents from 2019🔜 #NEWMCI pic.twitter.com/k99kPKWJkD
Meanwhile, Newcastle find themselves fifth – two points behind Man City. They are one of six clubs to have picked up one win and one draw across the opening two rounds.
The Magpies kicked off their campaign with a dominant 2-0 win over newly-promoted Nottingham Forest, notching 62% possession and 23 shots – ten of which were on target.
However, they found life more difficult against Brighton last weekend. After managing a solitary attempt on target, Eddie Howe’s side registered a goalless draw with the Seagulls.
Thanks to a strong end to the previous campaign, Newcastle have lost just one of their last 11 home games in the Premier League.
Better still, they are one of only two sides to have kept back-to-back clean sheets this season. Unfortunately for them, the other side are Man City.
As for Man City, they claimed a 0-2 victory over West Ham on Matchday 1 – with Erling Haaland bagging a brace on his Premier League debut.
Although Haaland failed to add to his tally last weekend, Pep Guardiola’s side cruised to an easy 4-0 win against Bournemouth.
Believe it or not, the defending champions have only lost one of their previous 30 Premier League encounters.
It is also worth noting that Man City have avoided defeat in each of their past 19 away games in the league. Needless to say, that is not good news for Newcastle.
Head-to-head: Man City have won each of their last five Premier League games against Newcastle, scoring a combined total of 20 goals (four goals per game).
On top of that, Guardiola’s side have kept four clean sheets across their previous five Premier League meetings with the Magpies.
Team news: Newcastle have a number of notable injury absentees at the moment, including Jonjo Shelvey, Federico Fernandez and Emil Krafth.
Man City will be without the injured Aymeric Laporte on Sunday, while Kalvin Phillips and Cole Palmer are also doubts.
Regardless of Newcastle’s steely resilience under Howe, Man City should have more than enough firepower to get the job done.
Forebet predicts that both teams will score on Sunday. However, Man City are expected to come out on top.