Manchester City vs Newcastle Predictions

• Newcastle have avoided defeat in six of their last seven Premier League away games, winning five
• Manchester City have failed to win three of their last six home league matches
• For City, this game falls between two tough Champions League clashes against Real Madrid
• Alexander Isak has scored 13 goals in his last 11 Premier League appearances

City’s dirty dozen of defeats

Manchester City could be on the wrong end of another superb away performance on Saturday when a physical Newcastle side head to the Etihad Stadium to test the reigning Premier League champions’ mettle.

Pep Guardiola’s side capitulated for what felt like the umpteenth time this season on Tuesday when Real Madrid stunned the Citizens with a late fightback to win their Champions League knockout phase playoff first-leg 3-2 in Manchester.

It was actually City’s 12th loss of the campaign, but those dozen defeats have come in their last 24 games. It was the third time in eight games that they had tossed away a lead late on and brought the goals against tally to 15 since their last clean sheet at Ipswich six games ago.

Injuries leave Pep short in defence and midfield

Worse still for Guardiola was that another three City stars appeared to pick up injuries in midweek that could rule them out of this game and the return clash at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. Jack Grealish, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were all forced off during an intense 90 minutes and look long shots to start on Saturday.

John Stones, therefore, looks likely to be deployed in defence against the Magpies, who will look to impose themselves in midfield through their physical Brazilian duo of Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes.

In what was their first league game after Rodri’s season-ending injury back in September, City struggled to break down Newcastle’s stout defensive set-up at St James’ Park and had to settle for a 1-1 draw. The Spaniard’s absence has been keenly felt all season but it may be more so in a fixture like this.

Isak arriving in top form

That first meeting of the campaign, containing a contentious penalty award for the Magpies and an even more blatant shout for one for the home side that was waved away, featured plenty of fouls and yellow cards. It came around a month before City’s campaign began to come off the rails and two months prior to Eddie Howe’s team really hitting their stride.

Newcastle will head to Manchester in search of their seventh consecutive away victory and, given City are prone to defensive lapses right now, are the obvious play to either win or at least avoid defeat. The Magpies received some good news on the injury front this week with Anthony Gordon back in training but there are some doubts surrounding Sven Botman, Dan Burn and Harvey Barnes.

Joelinton is also not certain to start, but with Alexander Isak arriving in tip-top condition they should be able to claim a point or more. City without Rodri are just not worth backing at odds-on against any top-six rival and Newcastle are good enough to cause them more pain this weekend.