Newcastle whistles sum up crazy game that Man City almost threw away

Manchester City threw away their Premier League game at Newcastle - only to rescue it with another incredible comeback that showed how difficult it will be to outscore them this season.

A terrible defensive performance that allowed Newcastle to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead on the hour-mark was bailed out by superstar striker Erling Haaland and midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne, the pair pouncing like seasoned predators to turn what had been an infuriating afternoon for Pep Guardiola into a point they will happily take home after taking on an inspired Newcastle.

This was City's third fixture of the campaign and the third consecutive time they had played a team that hadn't suffered a defeat or conceded a goal this season. West Ham obviously hadn't first up, but Bournemouth arrived at the Etihad last week on the back of beating Aston Villa to nil and Newcastle had two clean sheets to go with their four points from the opening matches.

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This ground has been a banana skin for Guardiola in previous years under both Rafa Benitez and Steve Bruce and the atmosphere on Sunday was far improved given the optimism that finally surrounds Newcastle again. Despite a flawless record of 10 wins out of 10 against Eddie Howe, there was good reason for the City manager to urge caution on his players ahead of this one.

Not that it seemed that way initially. Newcastle forgot to close down Bernardo Silva - making his first league start of the season with Jack Grealish absent with an injury and Riyad Mahrez benched - in the final third and forgot to mark Ilkay Gundogan in the box; one Blue shirt passed to the other and the visitors had the lead after just five minutes.

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