Pundit Paul Merson has admitted that he was surprised by Manchester City’s performance against Newcastle United last weekend.
The Manchester club secured their second Premier League victory of the season with a 1-0 win over Eddie Howe’s side on Saturday thanks to a goal from Julian Alvarez.
With the Citizens now set to take on Sheffield United on Sunday for their latest league fixture, one pundit has shared his thoughts on the manner in which Pep Guardiola’s side dispatched Newcastle.
Merson says he was surprised by City’s performance against Newcastle
Written in his latest column for Sportskeeda previewing this weekend’s Premier League fixtures, Merson had to say about City’s win over Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium.
He said: “Tottenham’s win didn’t surprise me much, but I was surprised by how comfortably Manchester City won their match against Newcastle.
“I thought it was a good time to play against City, and there were a lot of things stacked in Newcastle’s favour.”
Bearing in mind how City had the likes of John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva unavailable for the game last weekend and had not long got back from Athens where they beat Sevilla in the Super Cup, this makes it easy to see why Merson thought these factors may have worked in Newcastle’s favour.
However, with the home side having 59% possession in the game as well as having double the amount of attempts at goal (14) that Newcastle had, this highlights how superior the treble winners were on the night, despite the close scoreline.
Moving forward, if City can continue to deliver the sort of performances they put in against the Magpies throughout the rest of the season, they’ll be in with a great chance of regaining their Premier League title.
