Man City 2-1 Newcastle: Man City close gap on Arsenal as O'Reilly nets double

Nico O'Reilly scored twice as Manchester City beat Newcastle United 2-1 to put the pressure firmly on Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

Match Report

Arsenal's slip-up at Wolves on Wednesday opened the door for Man City to close the gap to two points by beating Newcastle, and Pep Guardiola's team got the job done at the Etihad Stadium.

O'Reilly opened the scoring with a blistering first-time effort in the 14th minute, but Lewis Hall swiftly dragged Newcastle level via a deflected strike.

Parity lasted only five minutes, however, with Erling Haaland standing up a cross from which O'Reilly brilliantly headed home.

Dan Burn saw a goal disallowed for Newcastle before half-time, and though City sat off in the second half, the visitors could not find a leveller.

A pair of Nick Pope saves to frustrate Haaland and Phil Foden paved the way for a grandstand finale when Harvey Barnes won a corner at the other end, but the Newcastle goalkeeper – who rushed up for the set-piece – just failed to connect with a close-range header

Data Debrief: O'Reilly grabs first double as Marmoush wields his magic

O'Reilly will rightly get the headlines; he scored his first Premier League brace, on his 35th appearance in the competition, netting in consecutive home league games for the first time.

Marmoush, though, was a livewire. He has now been directly involved in six goals (five goals, one assist) in four games against Newcastle in all competitions, only against Bayern Munich (seven – three goals, four assists) has he been involved in more goals across his career in the big five European Leagues. The Egyptian led the game for shots (five), while also creating two chances.

City have won their 17th Premier League home game in a row against Newcastle United and their 33rd victory overall against the Magpies – more wins than against any other opponent in the competition.

However, they were on the back foot in the second half, with Newcastle having 52.3% possession, though the visitors only generated chances worth 0.32 expected goals after the break, and in the end, City's 1.35 total xG to the away team's 0.58 suggests the hosts had the edge.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

14' GOAL! O'Reilly nets an early goal to put City in lead! Man City 1-0 Newcastle

16' Gordon shoots low to the middle of the goal, but Donnarumma denies him

17' Semenyo gets to the rebound but sends his effort wide of the post

22' GOAL! Lewis Hall's shot takes deflection and goes in! Man City 1-1 Newcastle

27' GOAL! O'Reilly heads the ball in as Haaland assists! Man City 2-1 Newcastle

37' O'Reilly fires just wide of the post after running onto a pass from Marmoush

41' Yellow Card! Ruben Dias booked for a bad tackle on an opponent

42' Dan Burn has a goal ruled out for offside!

48' Marmoush tries an effort from the edge of the box, but it goes just wide

Line-ups

Man City XI: Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva, Donnarumma, Rodri, Haaland, Omar Marmoush, Guehi, Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Matheus Nunes, Nico O'Reilly

Subs: Stones, Foden, Reijnders, Nico González, James Trafford, Cherki, Lewis, Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov

Newcastle XI: Trippier, Burn, Pope, Willock, Tonali, Gordon, Malick Thiaw, Anthony Elanga, Jacob Ramsey, Nick Woltemade, Lewis Hall

Subs: Ruddy, J.Murphy, Joelinton, Ramsdale, Barnes, William Osula, Alex Murphy, Leo Shahar, Sean Neave