TOON PUSH PEP STARS TO THE MAX

Newcastle show they mean business as Saint-Maximin runs champs ragged in rollercoaster draw

WHEN Bernardo Silva drew Manchester City level, the away supporters in the gods suggested that was why their team are champions.

And they are spot-on. Make no mistake, this was two points dropped by Pep Guardiola’s team, this was an early-season bump in the road, this was a game they should have won.

But at several points in this wonderfully exhilarating match, they were rattled, they were bemused, they were being run ragged by Allan Saint-Maximin.

They were being challenged in a way they are rarely challenged by anyone outside the established elite – but they recovered.

In the end, Newcastle were grateful for a point, happy to survive City’s attacking relentlessness, pleased that a red card for Kieran Trippier – after City had equalised – was controversially changed to a yellow.

But, for long periods, they went toe-to-to with this phenomenal City team and, if only for that, deserved a share of the spoils.

Because when Ilkay Gundogan collected Silva’s cross and put City ahead inside five minutes, it looked as though this would be another formality for the champions.

But any such idea was an insult to the vibrancy Eddie Howe has injected into his team.

At times this felt like a landmark performance by Newcastle United, a message that their ambitions are emphatically shaped towards mixing it at the top end of the Premier League. While their transfer activity has probably not been as spectacular as many expected, one of their biggest coups in recent times has been to keep hold of Saint-Maximin.

In this mood, he would frighten any defence in football and it is hard to recall Kyle Walker enduring a more torrid time.

Saint-Maximin’s speed and directness engineered a couple of great opportunities before Miguel Almiron’s thigh connected with another potent cross to draw Newcastle level.

It was no surprise the VAR check proved the assistant referee’s flag to be erroneous because Almiron (left) and his team-mates were timing their runs brilliantly all afternoon.

And chief among those Newcastle players was Callum Wilson, who sensed City’s fear when SaintMaximin again drove through the centre and latched a lovely finish on to the well-timed pass.

Cue pandemonium.

At least it sounded like pandemonium until you heard the racket early in the second half when Trippier scored the third with a wonderful free-kick after a tortured John Stones had fouled – yep, you’ve guessed it – SaintMaximin (right).

Moments prior to Newcastle’s third, Nick Pope underlined how valuable he is likely to be when superbly denying Erling Haaland, but the Norwegian struck from close range not long after the Trippier strike.

And in the blink of a mesmeric Kevin De Bruyne pass, City were level through Silva’s cute finish.

What such a thrilling contest did not need was a slightly dubious dismissal and it did not get one after VAR intervened and Jarred Gillett downgraded the red card he had shown to Tripper (inset) after a very naughty foul on De Bruyne.

Even without a man advantage, City always looked like the side that might collect a winner.

But Haaland wasted one good chance, Phil Foden did likewise and Newcastle, with more help from the excellent Pope, held on for a point that no one could possibly have begrudged them.