‘It’s always difficult’

Man City boss Pep Guardiola credits Newcastle’s defence and goalkeeper Nick Pope while admitting it’s a tough place to travel as team are held to hard-fought 1-1 draw; Arsenal, Chelsea win

Manchester City failed to shrug off the absence of Rodri in a 1-1 draw at Newcastle on Saturday as they dropped Premier League points for the second consecutive game. 

The Spaniard has been ruled out for the rest of the season due to a serious knee injury picked up in last weekend’s fiery 2-2 draw with title rivals Arsenal. 

Gvardiol scores for City

Josko Gvardiol put the visitors in front at St James’ Park, but Newcastle were well worthy of the point given to them by Anthony Gordon’s second-half penalty. A point edges City two points clear at the top of the table, but they could be overtaken by Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal by the end of the weekend. 

Pep Guardiola

Guardiola described Rodri, who is unbeaten in his past 52 Premier League appearances stretching back to February 2023, as “irreplaceable” but vowed to find a collective solution. Teenager Rico Lewis was thrust forward into a central midfield role alongside Mateo Kovacic. 

But City lacked the control and poise so often provided by Rodri on and off the ball. “It is always difficult here with their physicality and they defend so deep. We had chances but [Nick] Pope [the goalkeeper] was brilliant so we take the point,” said Guardiola. “We made bad decisions [with the chances] to make it 2-0.” 

Newcastle have lost only one of their six Premier League games this season but until now results have been better than the performances from Eddie Howe’s men. “That was a good display, that was us playing our way, brave,” said Howe. “It was two teams going right at each other for probably 70 minutes. Last 20 minutes they were stronger than us and we had to defend really well to maintain the point.”

City’s second successive draw in the league was especially frustrating as Arsenal moved level on points with them with a last-gasp 4-2 win against Leicester a few hours later. 

When scores were level at 2-2, Mikel Arteta’s men stole the points four minutes into stoppage time when Trossard’s shot deflected off Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi for an own goal, with Kai Havertz netting moments later to confirm the victory.

Chelsea’s Palmer nets four

Meanwhile, Cole Palmer scored four times in 20 first-half minutes to make Premier League history as Chelsea beat Brighton 4-2 to move up to third.

The Blues had trailed early on as Georginio Rutter took advantage of a calamity of errors in the Chelsea defence to head in his first goal for the Seagulls.

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