Man City are not unbeatable but Eddie Howe must get midfield decision spot on
Let us consider for a moment what Newcastle United are facing in their redemption match before the worshippers at the cathedral on the brow of Barrack Road.
Manchester City are current Premier League leaders, title winners in the last four successive years, and champions for seven of the last 10. They claimed the FA Cup in 2023 and were Wembley finalists last year. The League Cup was theirs in 2021.
Beyond our boundaries City won the Champions League in 2023, were runners-up 2021, Super Cup winners 2023, and World Club Champions 2023. That is some haul of loot in the 2020s.
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During the same time United have won nowt, though in fairness their endeavours to rise from the mediocrity of the Mike Ashley years have seen them reach a Wembley cup final, finish fourth in the PL, and play in the Champions League culminating in a never-to-be-forgotten night against Paris Saint Germain. Not at all bad.
However the gulf in class is still enormous with Newcastle starting their resurrection through oil money way after City.
Yes, it is a big plateful for every Geordie's Saturday lunch but it must not be automatically accepted that we'll finish up with indigestion. Accept defeat and you will surely get it. Form has of course to be found quickly and sustained for 90-plus minutes which is the tricky bit given the stop-start-stop progress through recent matches. United could do with Houdini and Lady Luck sitting alongside Eddie Howe in the home dug-out.
Who will be sitting next to him as substitutes and who will be on the field at kick off remains an intriguing question to be answered. Much may depend on Eddie getting it right.
Dropping his skipper for such a high profile game especially as it would appear to be publicly punishing Bruno for his suicidal pass across the face of his own goal would take immense courage and I think will not happen for that very reason of protecting reputation but there again Joelinton is also alarmingly off key and Sandro Tonali is pushing strongly to be unleashed from the start somewhere along the middle line. There is much in the melting pot of opinion.
City may be without Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne in their midfield but they have more stars than can be found in a cloudless night sky and it is doubtful if they will appear weakened. Not like United without say Alexander Isak and Nick Pope where they have no effective back up.
I'm sick of saying it but Newcastle must be united on and off the field. Alan Shearer fears that what may be going on behind closed doors will seep into the dressing-room - and he has been around SJP long enough to know - but if that is so it is up to all those serving the great Geordie public to put the cause ahead of personal feeling. This is not about individual glory but collective success. Are we not all in this together? Does everyone not benefit from success? Let everyone get a grip, great progress has been made and any new power base is presumably supposed to move us forward and upward not put a great black cloud in a blue sky. Signs are that peace could be breaking out. Let it be confirmed.
We must not lose sight of hope now or in the future. City can be defeated somewhere down the line. While winning all their titles they have never managed to remain unbeaten like Arsenal's Invincibles. They will lose this season. Form may tell us it will not be Saturday but then not that long ago Wigan beat Man City in the FA Cup final. What did status tell us then? It's a massive call for NUFC but fortune favours the brave. At the very least go down fighting.
I'll be previewing the big game along with former United star John Anderson at the Fleet Street pub just off the Bigg Market at 11am on Saturday.