'We've returned to our way of playing' – Howe takes positives from defeat to Man City

Eddie Howe believes Newcastle United have "returned to our way of playing" despite losing 2-1 to Manchester City.

The Magpies were downed by Nico O'Reilly's brace at the Etihad Stadium, with Lewis Hall getting on the scoresheet for the visitors and Dan Burn seeing a header ruled out for offside.

Hall’s equaliser was Newcastle's first Premier League goal at the Etihad in 2730 days, since September 2018 (DeAndre Yedlin), having failed to score in any of their six away league games against the Citizens in between.

However, Newcastle still lost their seventh Premier League away game of the season (W3 D4). That is already as many defeats on the road as they suffered in the whole of 2024-25 (W8 D4).

Newcastle also saw their three-game winning run in all competitions come to an end, but Howe remained upbeat.

"We're disappointed with the two goals we conceded," Howe told TNT Sports.

"We chased the game well in the second half and we were in it right until the end with Harvey [Barnes] shot right until the end.

"We were chasing the game against a very good team. We did that to a man excellently all game.

"The end product, the last cross, the last finish was not quite there. There were several occasions where we should have done better.

"We've returned to a good way of playing, our way of playing. We have done that over the last four games and as long as we get that consistently, I'll be happy."

Newcastle travelled to Manchester off the back of a long trip to Azerbaijan to face Qarabag in the Champions League. They won that game 6-1.

Hall, like Howe, opted to take a positive outlook on their result at the Etihad after a tiring week.

"I think we can be very proud of the effort we put in," said the defender.

"It's been a difficult week for us in terms of travelling, a long away day [midweek] and got back in the early hours.

"To come here against some of the best players in the world and go toe to toe with them, unfortunately, we weren't able to get a result, but we can be proud of the performance."