Overview
Manchester City narrowly escaped defeat against Arsenal in round 5 of the Premier League. Despite having one more player in the entire second half, The Citizens had to wait until the 90+8 minute to equalize 1-1.
However, midfielder Rodri is expected to miss the rest of the season after a collision with Thomas Partey. Since his move from Atletico Madrid in 2019, the Spaniard's impact on Pep Guardiola's side has been remarkable, with City losing just 11% of their games with Rodri in the side compared to 24% when he was absent.
Last season, The Citizens lost four of the five games that Rodri missed. Meanwhile, they have only lost once in all competitions when Rodri has played (excluding penalty shootouts).
Striker Erling Haaland has scored his 100th goal for Man City in just 105 appearances. The Norwegian striker has scored 10 goals in five appearances in the league this season.
Haaland's next target will be to become only the second player to score in each of his first six Premier League games. Previously, Sergio Aguero did this for The Citizens in the 2019-2020 season.
Dan Burn and Fabian Schar will certainly struggle to cope with Haaland at St. James' Park, but Rodri's injury could give Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton the chance to dominate the midfield.
This will be a chance for Eddie Howe's side to bounce back from a 3-1 away defeat to Fulham. Furthermore, the Magpies are unbeaten in their last 10 Premier League home games, winning six and drawing four.
They have also scored in their last 21 Premier League home games, a league record. The key to Newcastle continuing this scoring streak will be Harvey Barnes. He has been involved in goals in Newcastle's last four Premier League games (3 goals, 1 assist).
Overall, Barnes averaged a goal or assist every 87 minutes for Newcastle (8 goals, 4 assists in 1,042 minutes), but continuing that streak against the Premier League leaders will be a tough task.
Head to head record
Newcastle have won just one of their last 33 Premier League games against Man City (D5 L27), a 2-1 home win in January 2019 under Rafael Benitez.
Oscar Bobb scored a last-gasp winner in the match between the two sides at St. James' Park last season, as Man City won 3-2.
Man City have scored in their last 31 Premier League games against Newcastle, the longest scoring streak by a team against another in the history of the competition.
Score prediction
56% is the probability that Man City will win this match, more than 21.6% for Newcastle. Meanwhile, 22.4% is the rate of the two teams to share points at the Etihad.
Prediction: Man City 3-1 Newcastle
The match between Newcastle and Man City takes place at 6:30 p.m. on September 28 (Vietnam time).
