Harvey Barnes fired Newcastle to a welcome 2-1 Premier League victory over Manchester City with a quickfire double in a thrilling encounter at St James’s Park.
The former Leicester winger struck after 63 and 70 minutes either side of Ruben Dias’ equaliser to secure a first league success against City for head coach Eddie Howe at the 19th attempt.
It could hardly have been better timed with Howe’s men sitting in 15th place, just a single point above the relegation zone, before kick-off on Tyneside with a tough Champions League trip to Marseille to come on Tuesday evening.
It also leaves Premier League leaders Arsenal with the perfect opportunity to pull away from City, who could end the weekend seven points adrift of the top. The Gunners play Tottenham tomorrow in a hotly-anticipated North London derby.
The hosts almost got off to the perfect start when Joelinton pounced on Gianluigi Donnarumma’s ill-judged pass to Phil Foden, only for Barnes to shoot straight at the keeper.
Erling Haaland was equally and uncharacteristically wasteful at the other end, scooping a left-foot effort harmlessly wide after being played through by Jeremy Doku.
Nick Pope did well to get behind Rayan Cherki’s angled seventh-minute drive as City set up camp in the Newcastle half but Donnarumma pulled off a spectacular one-handed save to keep out Nick Woltemade’s powerful downward header from Jacob Murphy’s inviting 13th-minute cross.
Tino Livramento made a vital block to deny Haaland after Doku had been allowed to race from his own half to feed him and Foden stabbed wide under pressure from Fabian Schar.
Donnarumma came to the visitors’ rescue once again with 26 minutes gone when, after Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Barnes had combined neatly to play him through, Woltemade was unable to find a way past the Italian.
Barnes passed up a glorious 31st-minute opportunity to put the Magpies ahead when he steered a driven Murphy cross wide of the post while Pope somehow kept out Haaland’s snapshot from Nico O’Reilly’s pull-back four minutes later.
Foden sidefooted wide from Cherki’s cross three minutes before the break, in the process failing to round off an incisive move he had started, but a pulsating half ultimately ended goalless.
Haaland headed a 59th-minute Foden cross straight at Pope with Pep Guardiola’s men dominating possession but largely unable to pierce the black and white wall in front of them.
They fell behind with 63 minutes gone after the hosts produced their first cohesive attack of the second half.
Joelinton poked the ball to Guimaraes for his fellow Brazilian to twice exchange passes with Barnes, who fired right-footed past Donnarumma from the edge of the box.
City were level within five minutes when, after the Magpies had fail to deal fully with a Cherki corner, Dias blasted past Pope with a help of a deflection of Schar – but they were on level terms for just two minutes.
Guimaraes saw his header come back of the crossbar after Woltemade had returned the ball across goal but Barnes was on hand to stab home his second from close range.
The visitors threw everything they had at the Magpies as time ran down but Howe’s men negotiated eight minutes of stoppage time without mishap to claim the points.
PA
