Newcastle United VS Manchester City

Newcastle United VS Manchester City 💯💯 Manchester City will endeavour to move to within one point of Premier League leaders Arsenal when they travel to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United on Saturday evening. The Citizens and the Magpies meet for the first time since February when the former eased to a 4-0 top-flight victory at the Etihad Stadium, courtesy of a first-half hat-trick from Omar Marmoush. Newcastle entered the final international break of 2025 on a sour note after they suffered back-to-back Premier League defeats away against West Ham United and Brentford, losing 3-1 to the latter a fortnight ago despite taking an early lead through Harvey Barnes. After securing a top-five finish last season, the Magpies have posted just three win in their opening 11 league matches (D3 L5) this term and they currently sit 14th in the table, only two points above the relegation zone and seven points behind rivals Sunderland in fourth spot. Head coach Eddie Howe, who retains the full backing of Newcastle’s hierarchy, is “looking for a big response” during a “relentless” fixture schedule over the next few months and he believes that his Magpies side “cannot allow any sort of negative trend to continue” if they wish to compete higher up the table this season. Newcastle will welcome a return to St James’ Park where they have won each of their last five home matches across all competitions, scoring at least two goals in each, and have picked up 75% of their Premier League points so far this term (9/12), beating Fulham 2-1 in their most recent top-flight home fixture. However, the Magpies have come out on top only once in their last 35 Premier League meetings with Saturday’s opponents Man City (D6 L28) - a 2-1 home triumph in January 2019 under Rafael Benitez - while Howe has failed to win any of his previous 18 top-flight encounters with the Citizens (D2 L16) - the most that a manager has faced an opponent in the division without ever winning.