Newcastle United 1-3 Manchester City Review

FA Cup 5th Round

Earlier in the season, Guardiola made several changes against Leverkusen when the starters in previous weeks needed rest, and they let him down with their performance. This time around, despite the pressure in the opening twenty minutes, the group stepped up and delivered one of the team's most dominant performances this season.

MOTM: NICO GONZALEZ

Exceptional passing between the lines in the lead-up to both goals in the second half, finding Nunes in the pockets, switches out to Savinho on the right side, and dictated the game from midfield. Even more impressive when you consider the time spent out of the team now, Rodri had a run. In the previous two seasons, covering for Rodri has been a big concern among the fans. There is still plenty for Nico to improve on, but now there are two players to control games in the middle of the park, removing concerns about injuries and rotation.

Savinho, with his persistence to drive the team forward into the final third, and create chances. Whether it’s his first touch during the buildup or beating Lewis Hall 1v1 over and over again. Marmoush scored with an incredible finish for his second goal. Both deserve a mention.

Notable Stats:

• Omar Marmoush has scored 50% of his Manchester City goals against Newcastle (7/14).

• Man City are just the third side to eliminate Newcastle from both the EFL Cup and FA Cup in the same season after Wimbledon in 1987/88 and Arsenal in 2007/08.

• Manchester City recorded their single-match highest for xG (3.43) against Newcastle in the FA Cup. Ahead of Burnley (H) with 3.28 and Brighton (H) with 3.18 earlier in the season.

• Jeremy Doku (10) now has the joint-most assists for Manchester City this season across all competitions with Rayan Cherki.

Game Stats:

Newcastle United 1-3 Manchester City

• xG: 1.10 - 3.43

• Possession: 37.0% - 63.0%

• Total Shots: 11 - 21

• Penalty Box Shots: 6 - 18

• Passes in Opposition Half: 82 - 262

Savinho and Doku start a match together for the first time since Dortmund (H) on the 5th of November, 2025.

Omar Marmoush (1,036) and James Trafford (1,080) have now both crossed the 1,000-minute mark for this season across all competitions.

Nico O'Reilly (3,061) is the 2nd City player to pass the 3,000-minute mark this season after Erling Haaland.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Wingers fit and available again, holding the width, and you saw a different role for Matheus Nunes now in possession, moving inside to find space in the pocket behind Woltemade. Reijnders and Marmoush usually occupy the defensive line of Newcastle. O’Reilly is then in the pocket on the left side. All of which caused plenty of tension in the zonal block of Newcastle.

If they stay tucked inside with Barnes and Elanga, then you’re giving easy access to Savinho and Doku on the wings. If you support the full-back, you leave Nunes and O’Reilly in space on either side, causing another player to pick them up, as Thiaw would for O’Reilly, and that pulls around their backline. Woltemade is the one tasked to jump up and put pressure on the buildup unit of City. You don’t want to sit off entirely and let them string together passes to pull around the defensive block, but if he times it wrong, you open up the pass to Nunes, and Nico Gonzalez knew it.

Manchester City pressed in a 4-4-2 diamond as we’ve seen many times this season. O’Reilly at the tip, where we’ve seen Bernardo Silva mostly this season, to cover Tonali. Marmoush and Reijnders are to jump and apply pressure if Ramsdale passes to one of the central defenders. The wingers are tucked in but cover the full-backs if they receive the ball. Nico tracks Woltemade if he drops, the team maintains a +1 on the backline for dealing with long balls.

Manchester City started the first twenty minutes under pressure from Newcastle, conceding 7 shots in that period. Despite Reijnders having a great chance to open the scoring (3’), he shot wide. Great effort by Khusanov to block Barnes shot (10’). Woltemade has a header from a corner. Nico Gonzalez makes a clearance off the line after James Trafford misjudges his effort to come claim the ball.

There wasn’t a single point of failure from City in the opening twenty minutes. Against the M2M press of Newcastle, Trafford made a mess of a couple of long passes. But they cleaned up across the board. Stones and Khusanov moved closer to Trafford, pressing the players further infield, and giving Nunes more space. Hall has to jump a large distance to cover him, and Botman needs to come across to reach Savinho.

Nico and O’Reilly timed their drops better to clear out the central space. Reijnders would push up to occupy one of the central defenders, and then Savinho just needed to make a consistent first-touch for City to play their way out after triggering the press. Then, in the final third, they stopped rushing the actions of driving the ball into the box, so that the team is better set up to counterpress and manage any turnovers.

H. Barnes 18' 1-0
It's an excellent turn from Botman to move away from the press of Reijnders and find Tonali. O'Reilly doesn't close him down, and Marmoush is too late coming off to support. Nunes has lost Barnes when initially pushing up with the backline. He's not in a good position to try to intercept the pass through or make a recovery run.

Khusanov plays Barnes onside. Osula does a good job of stopping him from using that recovery pace to get back to prevent the shot from Barnes. The opening goal wasn't the only time Khusanov played Newcastle onside in the match last night, and in the Premier League this season, he's won 3/13 aerial duels. Exceptional in a lot of areas, but there is still plenty of development to come from him.

It’s Savinho in that period under pressure that continues to offer the team a route past the press of Newcastle, drives them back, and gets into the box to create chances. The team followed, stepping up in the final twenty minutes of the half to pin the opposition back and limit their chances. After Barnes shot from a set-piece in the 25th minute, there wasn’t another one by Newcastle in the first half. Reijnders had two big chances (34’, 40’), with one saved and another missed.

Savinho 39' 1-1
Being the best player for City in the first half, Savinho gets his reward. Ake passes into Doku whose doubled by Elanga and Trippier. O'Reilly makes a run to pull Thiaw across. Botman has come over to track Marmoush. Reijnders picked up in the box by Woltemade. Nunes runs into the box, which is then picked up by Lewis Hall. Leaving Savinho free at the back-post.

Savinho watches the line to keep himself onside. Doku bursts past Trippier and Elanga to drive the ball along the 6-yard box. Thiaw is too late to block the cross as he's occupied with O'Reilly. Hall is focused on stopping Nunes from getting a touch.

Savinho, free at the back-post, waits for the ball to arrive and puts it in. Rolling past the outstretched Ramsdale.

Given the chances to end the first half, along with the high turnovers they didn’t turn into shots, you felt it was an opportunity missed not to lead the match, but aside from that, it was an excellent turnaround from the team that was under pressure in the opening twenty minutes. Especially with how the Leverkusen (H) game went earlier in the season, from many of the players who started both.

O. Marmoush 47' 1-2
Although it didn’t take long for them to get in front. The spaces Newcastle leaves between the lines have been an issue for them all season long. This time, it's Nunes who's able to take advantage. Rather than holding width like in previous matches, he's moved inside.

Nico scans this space a couple of times before receiving the ball from Khusanov. Nunes only moves in once Nico gets the ball. Receives behind the midfield line of Newcastle and immediately lays off for Savinho.

He then makes his underlapping run into the space between Hall and Botman. Reijnders is making a run to the near-post. Marmoush to the back-post. O'Reilly arrives late to the middle of the box.

Savinho picks out the run of Nunes, who cuts it back across the 6-yard box. Just missing the run of O'Reilly but arriving perfectly for Marmoush at the back-post to score.

Early warning shot for Newcastle as a shot from Marmoush (60’) outside the box is saved by Ramsdale. Another big chance from Reijnders (60’) inside the box, deflection wide, out for a corner. O’Reilly (60’) then has his header saved.

Newcastle had 8 shots in the first half and only managed 3 in the second. xG between the two halves dropped from 0.90 to 0.21 in the second.

Eddie Howe does make some changes (62’) in this period, with Joelinton, Dan Burn, and Yoane Wissa coming on for Trippier, Osula, and Elanga.

O. Marmoush 65' 1-3
Another pass from Nico Gonzalez through to Matheus Nunes, this time past the forward and midfield line of Newcastle. He's then got the space to turn and drive at the backline. It’s worth noting that for both goals scored by Marmoush, the space between the lines is also poorly covered by Woltemade.

Reijnders is making the run into the box behind Thiaw. O'Reilly is arriving later. Just as Tonali comes to close him down, Nunes cuts it across to Marmoush whose slowed down on his run.

Takes a touch to get it out of his feet, over to the right side, before shooting back across the keeper to the top left corner. Scoring the third for Manchester City and his seventh against Newcastle since making his move.

After that, it was effectively game over. Newcastle don’t have a shot after the 3rd goal up until the 90th minute as Manchester City managed out the rest of the game. Semenyo (73’) comes on for Marmoush, giving the team an outlet to holdup the ball, especially in the corners, as he did a couple of times towards the end. Savinho and Doku come off for Foden and Cherki (79’), not pushed to a full ninety on their return. Livramento comes on for Hall (80’) to pick up his first minutes returning from injury.

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Moving Forward

Important win for the team in many ways. To bounce back after the dropped points against Forest, showing that the result was more about the mistakes in those moments leading up to the goals, rather than the performance as a whole. Progressed into the next round and rested key players ahead of playing Real Madrid. Many of the players further down the pecking order showed their quality, and that brings a lot of confidence to the group for what they can achieve this season.

This is the updated list of goal involvements this season across all competitions. Marmoush and Semenyo moved into the top ten after recent games. Cherki has now overtaken Foden. Nunes moved into 10th with his assist against Newcastle.

These are all of the open play crosses by Matheus Nunes for Manchester City this season in the Premier League and Champions League. As we saw against Newcastle, having wingers back fit opens up more opportunities for him to make the underlapping runs into the box and cut it back from the byline, which we’ve not seen as much whilst he’s been holding the width in recent games.

It’s a similar story when it comes to the crosses from the half-space, just outside the box, without a winger to drop the opposition defensive line, pull them deeper, and cut it back to him there. Something to keep an eye on now that Savinho and Doku are back fit.

Recently, Guardiola made a point of speaking to Nunes about getting forward more often, mentioning it after a match. Pedro Porro and Adrien Truffert have attempted 100+ crosses in the Premier League this season, compared to the 48 of Matheus Nunes. When you have the delivery, he does, whether it’s to the back-post for Erling Haaland, or cutting across the 6-yard box to Marmoush after arriving at the byline, you need to take more risks and increase the volume.

10 assists across all competitions last season, currently Nunes is on 5 this season. Below are his creative actions in the PL, and all of his assists come from him getting into those crossing positions mentioned.

Here is a rough look at how squad usage has shifted over the season, based on the percentage of total minutes played. Leverkusen (H) was GW19, and Guardiola doubled down on a consistent team after the players further down the pecking order underperformed. You can see quite a significant separation between the starters and the rest of the squad at this point.

As the season has gone on, that separation has disappeared, and the minutes have become more spread out. Injuries to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol will be a big part of that, opening up minutes for Khusanov and Alleyne. Ait-Nouri, Marmoush, and Cherki are picking up more minutes later in the season. The arrival of Semenyo and Guehi is another reason for this shift.

Next up for Manchester City is Real Madrid (A) on the 11th of March at 20:00 (UK time). The 1st leg in the Champions League round of 16 tie. The 2nd leg takes place at the Etihad the following week, on Tuesday, the 17th of March. The winner will face either Atalanta or Bayern Munich in the next round.