Mags 20-1 to defeat Pep’s Blues

NEWCASTLE United have been handed huge odds to beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium this weekend.

The Magpies are deemed 18/1 outsiders to become the first team to beat the Citizens on their own ground this season, although those odds have dropped from 20/1 since Liverpool inflicted their first defeat of the campaign on them during the pulsating 4-3 victory for the Reds at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.

You would have to go back to December 2016 to find the last game City suffered a defeat in front of their own fans, when Chelsea won 3-1 in the Premier League.

There has been talk of United not having anything to lose in this game and claims they should bravely try to go for the jugular.

Yet they have more than just dropping three points at stake because, as it stands, Newcastle have the best goal difference out of the bottom half of the table and, with the battle of survival so tight, Benitez will not want to see that dented.

Going to City and playing defensive tactics seems like you are asking for trouble, but if there is one way of rattling Pep Guardiola’s side it is to try to disrupt what they do.

Guardiola said after the 1-0 win for his side at St James’ Park last month: “When one team does not want to try it is hard.”

Previously, he had been irked by Nathan Redmond’s unwillingness to pour forward as Southampton came close to bagging a point at the Etihad.

After Man City had scored a 96th-minute winner against the Saints, Guardiola confronted Redmond.

Later, Redmond said: “He commented on my qualities as a young English player and how he wanted me to attack his team more during the game in a similar way to last season.

“I told him I was doing what my manager asked me to do in the game. That is it. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Benitez is likely to ask his team to do something similar against City and the bus will be parked at the Etihad this weekend.

If Newcastle merely emerge without being demoralised against moneybags Man City that may count as something positive for United, even if it is something nobody will be shouting about.