Newcastle vs Manchester City predictions: In-form Barnes takes aim at champions | OneFootball

Manchester City travel to Newcastle on Saturday, looking to bounce back after dropping their first points of the season against Arsenal last weekend (12.30pm, TNT Sports 1).

John Stones’ first goal of the season, deep into added time, earned City a point at home to the Gunners and moved them back to the top of the table.

That goal in the 98th minute means City are unbeaten in their last 28 league games, with 23 wins and five draws. 24 of these games have been in 2024 and they are just two games behind Chelsea, who currently hold the record for the longest run without a Premier League defeat from the start of a calendar year.

As well as losing points last weekend, the Champions also lost Rodri to a serious knee injury and how that will impact City over the course of the season remains to be seen.

Newcastle go into the game sixth in the Premier League table with three wins, one draw and one defeat from their opening five games.

Their last game was a 3-1 loss at Fulham, when they were convincingly beaten by Marco Silva’s side. The Magpies have struggled in front of goal this term, scoring just seven so far from just 20 shots on goal compared to City’s 36.

Eddie Howe’s side are unbeaten in their last 10 Premier League home games though, winning six and drawing four which should give them some hope, but the last team to beat them was City when goals from Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and an injury time winner from Oscar Bobb earned them a 3-2 win in January.

Newcastle have won just one of their last 33 Premier League games against City (D5 L27), a 2-1 home win in January 2019 under Rafael Benitez.

Despite the Magpies enjoying one of their best-ever starts to a Premier League campaign, betting sites are offering long odds on a home win, and we can’t see this one being anything except a City win, albeit in a game where both teams score.

City have scored in each of their last 31 league games against Newcastle, the longest scoring streak one team has against another in the competition’s history.

Newcastle on the other hand have scored in each of their last 21 Premier League home games, since a 0-0 draw with Leicester in May 2023.

This is the longest home scoring streak of any side in the competition. Throw into the mix City having conceded in four of their five league games so far and there seems a good chance both sides will score.

City are no bigger than 13/20 ton win on football betting sites, but add in both teams to score and you get far more palatable odds of 15/8.

It’s easy to back Erling Haaland again. He already has 10 goals in the league, reaching double figures in the least number of games and looks pretty unstoppable.

He could reach another milestone this weekend and become only the second-ever player to score in each of the first six games of a Premier League season, repeating a feat achieved by fellow City favourite Sergio Aguero in the 2019/20 season.

Betting apps show him at around 3/1 to open the scoring on Saturday and he’s 7/2 to net two or more at St James’ Park.

As for Newcastle, Harvey Barnes has been involved in a goal in each of his last four Premier League games, scoring three goals in three games and registering one assist which is his joint-best ever run of goal contributions in the top flight.

Overall, he’s averaged a goal or assist every 87 minutes since joining the Magpies with eight goals and four assists in 1042 minutes, which is the best rate of any player at the club to have played a minimum of 1000 minutes.

Barnes had been coming off the bench in games earlier in the campaign but started at Fulham and rewarded Eddie Howe’s faith with a goal.

The ex-Leicester man may have some success opening up a City team getting used to life without Rodri and is worth a look in the goalscorer and assist markets on Premier League betting sites.

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