Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted Newcastle are a threat to his side’s bid to win the Premier League for a third successive season.
City have lost just one of their opening 12 Premier League games – to rivals Liverpool – and have already scored 37 goals in total.
Erling Haaland has been responsible for scoring 17 of them, taking to the Premier League like a duck to water, but City are yet to top the table thanks to Arsenal’s electric start to the season.
They have lost just once under Mikel Arteta, winning ten of their other 11 games, and Eddie Howe’s Newcastle have also tasted defeat on just one occasion – after taking 16 points from a possible 18. Included in the top four. An incredible October.
The Magpies are in goal-scoring form – Miguel Almiron has been particularly impressive in that department in recent weeks – and a new-found solidity in defense has made them difficult to break down.
Miguel Almiron is in the form of his life in Newcastle/Stew Forster/Getty Images
Speaking ahead of City’s clash with Fulham at the Etihad, Guardiola revealed his admiration for Newcastle’s game, and admitted he expects them to be at the business end of the table for many years to come. will
“Newcastle have a good manager and top-class players,” said the Spaniard. “I imagine they will be there for a long time.
“They have physicality in the middle, box-to-box transitions and their intensity without the ball is impressive. Also, they’re not playing in Europe, which is a big advantage because when you get into the final months. So you have energy.”
Newcastle’s standout players in recent weeks have included Almiron, Callum Wilson and Kieran Trappier, but the emergence of Bruno Gomaris as an excellent central midfielder has underpinned their recent success – short of October’s PFA Premier League. One of the six players listed for the Brazilian fans’ player of the month award.