Newcastle United vs Manchester City. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats, and more

Newcastle United FC will host Manchester City in the English Premier League 21st round match at the St. James’ Stadium. The fixture will take place on Saturday, January 13, beginning at 23:00 IST.

Parimatch News will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.

Newcastle United News & Current Form: 

English clubs had no holiday at all, while the EPL had a two-week break. The attention of the grandees was turned to the national cups, so the schedule with matches in two days on the third was maintained. But not for Manchester City and Newcastle, who dropped out of the English League Cup before the semi-finals. 

Before the break, the Magpies had hit a disastrous slump. Four defeats in a row – they lost three times in the championship, managed to get out of the League Cup, after passing the Citizens (1:0) and Manchester United FC (3:0), but yielded in the quarter-finals to Chelsea FC in a penalty shootout. 

The only thing that brightened the picture a bit was the Emirates FA Cup, where they defeated Sunderland AFC( 3:0) and stepped into the next round, where they will face Fulham FC.

Eddie Howe can not yet bring the team out of the game crisis – in the last ten matches they have won only three victories. The rest of the games the team lost, for example against one of the outsiders of the national championship – Luton Town FC (0:1), also against Everton FC (0:3) and Nottingham Forest FC (1:3), who hung around in the bottom of the standings.

In the last match of the Premier League, Newcastle lost away to Liverpool FC with the score 4:2. In the first half, the guests were under pressure, but did not allow the opponent to open the score. After the break, the wards of Jurgen Klopp increased the pressure, and eventually the Magpies fell apart. The team’s weakest link – the defense – could not withstand the pressure.

The Reds’ leader Mohamed Salah scored a double and made a goalscoring assist, which decided the outcome of the game. Goalkeeper of the Black and Whites Martin Dubravka, who replaced the injured Pope, left a poor impression. Such a series led Howe’s team to drop to ninth place, with the gap from the Champions League zone widened to 11 points.

Nevertheless, the head coach has an excuse – a veritable epidemic of injuries has hit the club. Several key performers, who are essential, are out for a long time, and the reserves can not adequately replace them.

For example, the club still can not count on Nick Pope, Matt Targett, Joelinton, Joe Willock, Elliot Anderson, Harvey Barnes and Callum Wilson. Also, the suspended Sandro Tonali, Newcastle’s most expensive summer recruit (€64 million), will not appear on the pitch until the end of the season.

The club’s poor performance in the UEFA Champions League is also linked to injuries. Over the six matches of their group, the team managed to gain only five points with one win, and took the last place in the standings. The team’s opponents were Borussia Dortmund, PSG and Italian AC Milan.

Despite the absence of key players, the team’s top scorer Alexander Isak scored 13 goals over the season, three of which were scored from the penalty spot. The second place is occupied by Callum Wilson, who has eight goals, two of which he scored from the penalty spot. 

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Manchester City News & Current Form: 

Man City continue to claim the top spots this season. The reigning winners of the English Championship and the FA Community Shield, as well as the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup are still in third place in the standings.

The Citizens have 40 points after nineteen games. The team from Manchester is five points behind the leader, but has a game in hand. Above are Liverpool and Aston Villa FC. Manchester City managed 45 times (the most in the league) to hit the opponent’s goal and 21 times missed on their own.

In the last games of the championship they outplayed Everton (3:1), and before that played a draw with Crystal Palace FC (2:2). Before that, there was also a victory in the match with Luton (2:1), a defeat from Aston Villa (0:1) and a draw with Tottenham Hotspur FC (3:3).

In the last round of the EPL, the team defeated Sheffield United FC at home (2:0). The Citizens with great difficulty overcame the defensive barriers of the opponent and won thanks to two effective passes of Phil Foden, the midfielder assisted Rodri and Julian Alvarez.

Despite such good results in the league, City have already crashed out of the English League Cup, losing to Newcastle (0:1), while in the domestic cup they got past Huddersfield Town FC (5:0) and will play Tottenham. 

But in the Champions League, wards of Pep Guardiola confidently won their group with RB Leipzig, BSC Young Boys and FK Crvena Zvezda, making it through to the play-offs, where they will play against FC Copenhagen.

The attacking potential of Josep Guardiola’s team was significantly weakened by the absence of the injured Erling Haaland. The team manager said that the Norwegian striker has already started training, but the decision on his participation in the game against Newcastle has not yet been made.

There are also reports from various sources that Haaland will move to FC Barcelona after the end of the season. Judging by the rumors, a contract has already been agreed and the Catalans will pay €100m for the transfer.

But Man City fans have a reason to rejoice – after a long break Kevin De Bruyne, the brain center of the midfield, has returned. The Belgian has already appeared on the pitch in the 1/32 FA Cup final against Huddersfield, which Guardiola’s side won 5:0, and scored a goal. He is regaining his form and could feature in the starting line-up.

Newcastle United form guide: W-L-L-L-L-W

Manchester City form guide: D-W-W-W-W-W

Newcastle United vs Manchester City Head-To-Head Record:

• March 4, 2023: Manchester City 2 – 0 Newcastle United (Premier League);
• August 19, 2023: Manchester City 1 – 0 Newcastle United (Premier League);
• September 27, 2023: Newcastle United 1 – 0 Manchester City (Carabao Cup).

Newcastle United vs Manchester City Predicted XI:

Newcastle United’s possible starting lineup (4-3-3): Dubravka; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Longstaff, Guimaraes, Miley; Almiron, Isak, Gordon.

Manchester City’s possible starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Ederson; Walker, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol; Rodri, Kovacic; Bernardo, Foden, Grealish; Alvarez.

Statistical preview of the match Newcastle United vs Manchester City:

• Newcastle’s First XI average age is 27.6 years, City’s First XI average age is 27.1 years.
• Chris Kavanagh has been appointed as the center referee. The referee has already served sixteen games this season, showing an average of 4 Yellow Cards and also whistles 21 fouls per game. 
• The total value of Newcastle’s squad is 643 mln euros, while the total of Manchester City adds up to 1.29 bln euros.
• Newcastle have a 10-match series without draws in the Premier League (4 wins and 6 defeats).
• At least three goals were scored in 5 of the last 6 games of Newcastle in the championship.
• Before the defeat from Nottingham, United had a series of 7 home wins in the EPL.
• Citizens have scored at least two goals in 9 of their 11 previous games in the EPL.
• Both teams have differentiated themselves in 7 of Manchester City’s last 9 matches in the league.
• The Mancunians have conceded in 8 of their previous 9 away games in the Premier League.  
• Newcastle allow an average of 5.1 serves from a corner near their own goal per game, while Manchester City serve 6.35 corners per game.
• Newcastle collect an average of 2.25 yellow cards per game, while Manchester City collect 1.55. 

What has been said before the match:

Eddie Howe, coach of Newcastle United: 

“We fully respect Manchester City. They have been the best team in the Premier League when you consider – probably – the last five years. I think they’ve been incredible, probably even longer. They have got – for me – probably the best manager in world football, but we don’t fear anybody.”

Pep Guardiola, coach of Man City: 

“It always has been difficult, especially since Eddie Howe took over. We have faced each other many times when he was at Bournemouth and now at Newcastle. We have a good history together.”

“Right now, yeah, City can retain the title. How many points left? 18 or 19 games? We are only five points behind, it is statistically possible. We want to make a legacy and dynasty. Is it realistic? At the moment, it’s far away so I don’t know. We haven’t had time mentally to recover from winning the Treble. I think the Club World Cup gave us an opportunity to find a spark. We’ve won two titles already this season. Right now, Liverpool are playing unbelievable, they are back having their best moment in many years.”

“When you win a lot, you think ‘okay we can do it, we are aware we can do it, we have the knowledge we can do it’ but at the same time you aren’t the same. We did it but at the same time it’s like this: okay, Newcastle, go there and try to do it again, game by game and see what happens.”

Newcastle United vs Manchester City Prediction:

Newcastle is under the weather. A whole range of important players can not help the Magpies for various reasons, and therefore all the recent games they have played have seen lackluster performances. In the six previous rounds Eddie Howe’s charges scored only 3 out of 18 possible points, which in itself speaks about the current crisis in the camp of northeasterners. The opponent’s woes will be exploited by the Citizens, who have finally started to regain their footing, which allowed them to win three times in the last four games with one draw. And now Josep Guardiola’s wards are the clear favorites of the meeting, even taking into account the unavailability of the attacking vanguard – Erling Haaland. 

That said, the confrontations between Newcastle Utd and Manchester City in recent years are hardly rich in goals. The Magpies look particularly dismal in offense, having left the field four times in the previous six meetings without any resultant actions. In the upcoming battle, we do not expect a sharp positive dynamic in this aspect, the unavailability of creative attacking players is too constraining for Eddie Howe’s toolkit. Moreover, the Citizens have finally tuned up their defensive structures, having conceded only one goal in the last five matches. 

We expect the Sky Blues to be able to take three points away from St James’ Park this Saturday. 

Parimatch News staff prediction:

We say: Manchester City will win and the match total will be less than 4 – Yes.
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