SLOG ON THE TYNE
It’s not pretty as Benitez parks bus but unstoppable City get job done
THEY are not just breaking records and setting new standards, they are doing this to grand institutions.
They are reducing traditional crowd-pleasers, grand old entertaining teams to crushing bores, to imitations of what their supporters think they should be.
Yes, Rafa Benitez and Newcastle might have got a thumping had they showed some adventure earlier.
But to be so negative for so long shows just how much fear Pep Guardiola and his team have instilled in Premier League rivals.
City had Raheem Sterling’s firsthalf goal to thank for their 18th Premier League win on the spin but they could have been over the horizon long before Newcastle had a proper go at them late on.
This was a groundhog game, yet another opponent taking bus-parking to new levels.
No wonder Guardiola felt enabled to replace the injured Vincent Kompany with Gabriel Jesus (below). It meant that after barely 10 minutes, City had settled into a familiar none-10 formation.
It had been clear from the off that skipper Kompany was struggling and this latest setback, the 39th injury of his career, clearly got to him.
Normally such a phlegmatic character, he was close to tears, thumping the substitutes’ hutch in naked frustration.
You have to wonder how long one of City’s talismanic figures can go on coping with the fight against his body’s disobedience.
On a practical level, do not be surprised to see Guardiola look for a centre-half in the transfer window.
Not that they need one most of the time.
Even by the standards of recent matches, this was attack against defence to an almost bizarre extent. For long periods, there were 21 players squeezed into a third of the field. There were no Newcastle entertainers here, just plenty of spoilers.
Congestion was so heavy that City resorted to some uncharacteristically speculative efforts, Rob Elliot unconcerned by potshots from Kevin De Bruyne.
He was more concerned by a Sergio Aguero header but marvellous keeping instinct kicked in. De Bruyne’s long-range attempts betrayed his annoyance at misplacing a couple of passes but any waywardness could not last for long. And sure enough, a deft chip into the path of Sterling soon arrived and Elliot was deceived at his near post by a scuffed finish.
Scuffed or not, the intelligent run made Sterling’s 13th Premier
League goal of the season. The supply of superlatives for his form is shrinking rapidly.
His latest strike actually did not go down too badly with the locals, in the sense it forced Newcastle into actually wanting possession of the football.
For the first quarter of an hour, for example, City had a mere 90 percent of possession.
What Toon boss Rafa Benitez set out to do is understandable, but only to an extent.
When Newcastle responded to going behind by showing a hint of ambition, Rolando Aarons and Newcastle were a Nicolas Otamendi goal-line clearance away from halftime parity.
This attack-obsessed City team CAN be got at but not if you show as little attacking intent as this Newcastle team did or as Bournemouth did on Saturday.
Guardiola’s team were nowhere near as sharp as normal here.
They were wasteful for a start, Sterling curling a good chance wide early in the second half and, horror of horrors, De Bruyne forgetting his lines when seeing the whites of Elliot’s eyes.
He remembered them moments later but his drive from 20 yards cracked the upright.
As an offside Aguero knocked in the rebound, anguish briefly visited Guardiola’s face.
He knew City should have been out of sight, knew anxiety should not have been a factor.
But it became one and City had Andre Marriner to thank when a Kyle Walker mistake allowed Dwight Gayle to charge clear and the referee decided the Newcastle striker dived when he heard Danilo’s footsteps.
This must have been Rafa’s ploy all along and it nearly paid off when Gayle again found space but put his header a couple of inches wide with City keeper Ederson at full stretch.
That was that. There was the odd scare but this remarkable City side march on.