When Manchester City won at Anfield, Pep Guardiola declared that all his side could do was breathe down the neck of Arsenal. And if the Premier League leaders are feeling ever more uncomfortable, it is because they can sense their pursuers are ever closer.
The margin is two points now, giving Arsenal all the more reason to rue the two they dropped at Molineux, all the more pressure in Sunday’s North London derby. City are acquiring the momentum Arsenal seem to have mislaid.
And, after Arsenal cowed at Wolves, City had a player capable of seizing the initiative. They have spent around £430m in the last three transfer windows but their catalyst cost nothing. Three midfielders Guardiola has signed in the last 14 months began on the bench, in Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki, while the homegrown Nico O’Reilly started and delivered his first Premier League brace. Strange as it sounds, he is level for goals in 2026 with Erling Haaland.
The life of O’Reilly may yet involve a trip to the World Cup. The life of Guardiola can involve reinventing and reimagining footballers. O’Reilly, a No 10 in his younger days, became a talismanic makeshift left-back. Now he has been recast as a marauding midfielder. He anchored the midfield in City’s Carabao Cup win at St James’ Park, operated in the middle again in the return leg and played further forward in Guardiola’s 4-2-2-2 formation in a rematch.
Meanwhile Haaland and Omar Marmoush, the split strikers and supposed scorers, became O’Reilly’s suppliers, each registering an assist. The Mancunian’s double showed different sides to his game; for the first, he arrowed in a shot from 18 yards after powering forward to meet Marmoush’s pass; the Egyptian may have been selected as a specialist for such a fixture, given his record of scoring against Newcastle, but instead helped make a goal.
O’Reilly’s second felt the kind Haaland should be scoring. Instead, the Norwegian lofted the cross to the far post and the local lad met it with a towering header. Haaland will almost certainly end the season with his third Premier League Golden Boot but now only Bruno Fernandes has more assists in the current campaign.
Antoine Semenyo and Marmoush might have got a third for City while Nick Pope made a 91st-minute double save from Haaland and Phil Foden. None struck, which meant Gianluigi Donnarumma’s terrific 94th-minute stop was needed to deny Harvey Barnes and secure the points.
Yet, amid the tension, there was a predictability to the outcome. City’s fifth straight win in all competitions was a third over Newcastle United in 2026. There may be a fourth when they meet in the FA Cup in two weeks. As Newcastle’s last point at the Etihad came in 2006, an extraordinarily unsuccessful run was extended. This is the longest winless run at one ground in Premier League history.
At least a 17th straight reverse brought a first top-flight goal here since 2018 and, for that matter, in Eddie Howe’s reign. Lewis Hall squeezed a shot through a crowded box, aided by a deflection off Rodri. It was a landmark goal for the left-back, too; his first in 21 months.
When Newcastle pulled level, City restored their lead inside five minutes. That was an immediate riposte and City’s swift start had suggested they were intent on making a point. They played at a blistering pace. Newcastle fielded 10 of the side who started against Qarabag in Azerbaijan three days earlier. After a journey of some 2,500 miles, they were overpowered before the break, but better after it.
And they scored once in the first half and thought they had another. Dan Burn headed in Sandro Tonali’s free kick and had begun celebrating before he was flagged. Newcastle could argue he was pushed into an offside position.
Yet even when reeling, Newcastle had possessed an out ball: Anthony Gordon’s pace on the break rendered him a menace. He drew a fine save from Donnarumma after motoring past Marc Guehi. When he was accelerating beyond Ruben Dias, the defender tugged him back, at a cost of a caution. He went off at half-time, the faster Abdukodir Khusanov replacing him. Gordon was less of a threat thereafter.
So City left the field to cheers. They entered it to a guard of honour from their 1976 League Cup winners, who beat Newcastle in the final and secured the club’s last major trophy for 35 years. It felt as if it should have been the other way around, the current players forming the guard for their predecessors.
But the class of 2026 may end up with rather more silverware. And the Premier League, like the Carabao Cup, is now shaping up as a battle between just them and Arsenal.
