Manchester City could only manage a draw against Newcastle United – but one player left Troy Deeney very impressed.
Manchester City and the Magpies shared the spoils at St. James’ Park, with Anthony Gordon cancelling out Josko Gvardiol‘s brilliant opener.
Ederson brought down the England winger in the penalty area. The contact was minimal, but a penalty was given and Gordon himself took it.
City are currently second in the table, level on points with Arsenal.
Liverpool lead the way by a point, after beating Wolves 2-1 at Molineux.
Newcastle away is one of the more difficult fixtures in a Premier League season and a 1-1 draw is certainly not the worst result in the world.
A few players struggled at St. James’, but Troy Deeney heaped praise on defender Gvardiol.
Troy Deeney praises Man City defender Josko Gvardiol after his performance in Newcastle draw
Newcastle under Eddie Howe are a difficult opponent for anyone, especially at St. James’ Park.
Undoubtedly, they will take points off a lot of teams there this season, potentially including City’s title rivals.
It just wasn’t to be on Saturday, as City struggled in the absence of Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne.
But it was at least another good display from Gvardiol, who is starting to look like the top left-back in the Premier League these days.
The Croatia international has come in for praise from former Premier League striker Troy Deeney, who has selected the 22-year-old in his latest Team of the Week for BBC Sport, following his performance and well-taken goal at Newcastle.
He said: “He scored a lovely goal and I thought the Croatian was really outstanding at Newcastle.
“I like the way he plays, he’s a big strong boy who puts himself about, but he obviously also has that lovely footwork to get the goal.”
Gvardiol getting better and better
Gvardiol was indeed very good for City on Saturday against Newcastle and Pep Guardiola must be very pleased with the star.
The manager himself was left impressed by Gvardiol, praising his ability in the small spaces and even admitting he did not really know he had such good finishing quality.
Gvardiol – who has now scored more goals than former City striker Gabriel Jesus since the start of last season – is starting to look like a serious player.
He took a few months to settle in at City following his £77 million transfer from RB Leipzig, and arguably finished last season as one of the best performers.
This term, the £200,000-a-week ace has picked up where he left off, with the injury to Nathan Ake allowing him to impress pretty much at every turn.
Hopefully, he can sustain this great form for as long as possible.
