Manchester City 1, Newcastle United 0
Julian Alvarez scored the winner as Manchester City eased past Newcastle United with Phil Foden pulling the strings in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne.
PLAYER RATINGS – Manchester City 1, Newcastle United 0
Ederson: 7. Mainly a spectator until called into action after 70 minutes to save from Harvey Barnes.
Kyle Walker: 7. Played very high and had to chance to get some balls into the box although his accuracy wasn’t high. Great in defensive phases though – still has the pace.
Ruben Dias: 7. Back from an enforced concussion break. Solid defending all night but distribution could have been better later in the game.
Manuel Akanji: 7. Versatile defender played the John Stones midfield role and had chances to attack too. Dropped back to defend too – great interception in the second half.
Josko Gvardiol: 7. Sat deep on the left side of the defence, kept an eye on Miguel Almiron’s runs down his flank but also produced a couple of well timed interceptions as the last man towards the end as City started to make mistakes with Callum Wilson threatening on the break.
Rodri: 7. His usual composed self in midfield. Kept City ticking over but one blot on the copybook when he inexplicably lost the ball to Callum Wilson while trying to find Josko Gvardiol.
Mateo Kovacic: 7. Got into good positions to create chances and he threaded the ball between Newcastle defenders to release Phil Foden to create the opening City goal. Not afraid to mix it either.
Julian Alvarez: 7. Passed fit to play in an advanced role closer to Erling Haaland, and was in a perfect position to power home the opening goal.
Phil Foden: 8. Handed a crucial midfield start in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne and was soon threading forward passes through – his square pass set up Julian Alvarez. And he’s showing the work rate needed too, had a late chance saved by Nick Pope. Crossing isn’t up to the De Bruyne gold standard though.
Jack Grealish: 6. Relatively few chances to impress, most attacks went down the other flank. But he did do a very popular tackle on Miguel Almiron to stop a late Newcastle counter attack.
Erling Haaland: 7. Not afraid of a bit of physicality and went close several times – most notably denied by a late tackle by Fabian Schar and a save off Nick Pope.
GOAL – Manchester City 1, Newcastle United 0
Man City 1, Newcastle Utd 0: 31. Julian Alvarez opened his account with a fine goal inside the back post, into the side netting, after Phil Foden squared a fine defence splitting pass by Mateo Kovacic into his path.
MATCH STATS – Manchester City 1, Newcastle United 0
Man City: Ederson, Walker (C), Dias, Akanji, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, Alvarez, Foden, Grealish, Haaland
Man City Subs not used: Ortega, Phillips, Ake, Gomez, Perrone, Bobb, Palmer, Lewis, McAtee
Bookings: Alvarez 46 (foul on Sandro Tonali)
Goal: Alvarez 31
Newcastle Utd: Pope, Trippier (C), Schar, Botman, Burn, Tonali (Anderson 66), Guimares, Joelinton (S Longstaff 56), Almiron (Livramento 86), Gordon (Barnes 56), Isak (Wilson 66)
Newcastle Utd Subs not used: Dubravka, Lascelles, Ritchie, Targett
Booked: Gordon 23 (foul on Ruben Dias); Tonali 34 (foul on Phil Foden); Barnes 58 (foul on Kyle Walker); Guimares 71 (foul on Phil Foden)
Referee: Robert Jones