A cheerful Pep Guardiola appeared reasonably satisfied with a point at Newcastle as his Manchester City side were held to a second Premier League draw in the space of seven days. Unlike last Sunday’s contentious match with Arsenal, Saturday’s encounter proved to be much more amicable. Guardiola’s previous talk of conflict with Mikel Arteta was replaced with kind words and a warm embrace for his Newcastle counterpart, Eddie Howe, as both managers concurred that a 1-1 draw was a fair outcome.
“I told him [Howe] that I admire him and the way he approaches the game,” said Guardiola. “Newcastle press high and are very tough to play against. They have a lot of energy. As a manager, you always show respect to an opponent who is trying to do things the right way.” If this was a subtle message to Arteta, Guardiola’s respect for Newcastle seemed genuine. “It’s always challenging to play here because of their physicality,” he added, noting that his side took a first-half lead through Josko Gvardiol before a second-half penalty from Anthony Gordon secured a point.
“Newcastle are impossible to contain over a whole 90 minutes. At 1-0, we made some poor decisions and failed to make it 2-0. We would have liked to win, but we take the point.” City’s manager is adjusting to life without influential midfielder Rodri, who will miss the rest of the season due to an anterior cruciate ligament rupture. “I need to find a solution, but in midfield, we were strong today. Kova [Mateo Kovacic], Rico [Lewis], and Bernardo [Silva] did well. The issue today was balls in behind.”
Guardiola could have done without Erling Haaland being caught on the Achilles by Dan Burn’s studs in the first half and acknowledged that the Norway striker is being assessed. “Haaland has some knocks,” he said. “We’ll have to see how he is.” Howe, usually reserved with rival managers, seems quite impressed by Guardiola. “I really admire Pep,” he said. “I think he’s very good for the English game. He’s an innovator. It’s great for us all to face him, and today was a really good game, very tactically interesting.
“It was our best display of the season and probably the most competitive we’ve been against Manchester City since I’ve been here. Manchester City are a very difficult team to press, but we were committed and brave. On another day, we could have won. I do think we’re a difficult team to contain.” Howe had called for improved individual performances after last Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Fulham, and he received the desired response. With Alexander Isak sidelined by a broken toe, Gordon deputized at center-forward, converting an equalizing penalty. “Anthony was really, really impressive,” said Howe. “He’s getting back to his very best in terms of fitness levels.”
