The Good, The Bad, and The Average #7: NUFC player ratings vs. Man City (h) [PL6]

What a difference a week makes in football. After an abject performance at Craven Cottage last Saturday, this was much more like it from Newcastle against Manchester City at St James' Park.

Nobody epitomised the difference more than Anthony Gordon, who was outstanding from the first whistle playing out of position at striker due to the absence of Alexander Isak with a broken toe.

The mulleted Scouser led our press magnificently—also winning and scoring the equalising penalty—but there were also strong performances from the likes of Jacob Murphy and Fabian Schär.

In truth, only Harvey Barnes was below par from the starting eleven, with most of Eddie Howe's charges putting in their best individual displays of the season. Here's how we saw it from Nick Pope through to Tino Livramento.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Good

Whether it was Wor Flags' pre-match display in his honour or his new six-year bumper contract, Anthony Gordon was back to his best. He completed 33 sprints in the match as he hunted down City's ball carriers, while he also won and scored the equalising penalty. He never stopped, proving to be a more than adequate replacement for Isak in the lone striking role against the toughest of opponents.

Jacob Murphy backed Gordon up incredibly well from the right flank, although his decision-making left a little bit to be desired on some occasions. Still, he set the tone for the contest from the opening seconds when powering past Joško Gvardiol and made a big chance for Sean Longstaff late on with an excellent pickout. If he played like this every week he'd be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

At the back, Fabian Schär was the pick of the bunch with a strong defensive display and some excellent long-range passes. It was clearly a tactic to have the Swiss acting as our quarterback and while his execution wasn't as good as it usually is, he still helped create some of our best openings in the first half with his vision. Not many centre-back pairings will keep Erling Haaland so quiet, either.

Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, and Lewis Hall made up the rest of the back five and played their part in a good result. Pope's handling and reflexes were again on point, but the less said about his kicking and passing the better. Trippier was solid but got done by Jack Grealish for City's goal, while Burn was also somewhat at fault for that and to blame for other opportunities later on as well. A couple of stray passes aside, Hall did well.

Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães did more good than bad, too, though neither were at their peak. Tonali ran himself into the ground and was most notable for some key defensive contributions in the second period, while Bruno played a superb outside-of-the-foot pass to set Gordon away for the penalty and battled well in the heart of the midfield. Sandro surely has to start every game from now on.

A word, too, for Tino Livramento. Pressed into action unexpectedly due to Trippier going down with cramp in the 78th minute, the young full-back had a tough assignment up against a fresh Jérémy Doku but handled the tricky winger well. He also contributed a fair bit going the other way in his brief time on the pitch, with a 100% pass completion rate and some really nice bits of footwork.

Although we'd have liked to have seen earlier substitutes and the entire bench utilised in the later stages, Eddie Howe deserves credit for our tactical approach and overall performance. He'd certainly got the players up for the contest, with this easily being our most complete display of the season. We weren't a million miles away from a victory, which would have been one of his very best.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Bad

For such an in-form player, it was a shame to see Harvey Barnes having such a small impact on proceedings. Whether he just didn't fancy it up against Kyle Walker or didn't see enough of the ball due to City's domination of possession, he offered very little and was rightly brought off in the second half.

Sean Longstaff didn't do his chances of being restored to the starting eleven any good with his cameo. He was soft defensively, gave up possession extremely cheaply on one occasion, and failed to make a clean contact on the big chance Murphy laid on a plate for him in the dying stages.

Forgive us for not shedding any tears about Manchester City being without Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne after all the injuries we've suffered over the last 18 months. Much less was said about us not having either of our senior strikers fit yesterday. They're so, so boring to watch and they barely laid a glove on us, while also wasting time at every opportunity they got at 0-0 and 0-1. Funny how they sped things up at 1-1...

If ever there was a perfect referee for City's time-wasting approach it was the charisma vacuum that is Jarred Gillett. The Aussie didn't get a handle on them at all and seems to lack authority on the pitch. While we'll credit him for giving the Gordon penalty—which was a stonewaller despite what Alan Shearer will have you believe—we're adamant that Joelinton should've also had a spot-kick when bundled over by Walker in the second half.

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The Average

This was another funny game for Joelinton, who still doesn't seem to be fully at it for us. He won just 8/18 duels and committed almost as many fouls (3) as he made clean tackles (4), but we can't ignore how good he was defending our box from aerial balls. He's too sloppy in possession for someone who used to be so secure on the ball, with some really bad lapses in concentration that put us in trouble.

Joe Willock managed to be even less involved than Barnes out on the left flank, with just four touches in his 20 minutes of action. We'd liked to have seen him dropped into the midfield with Joelinton moving out to the flank to give Walker something else to think about, but we can understand Howe not wanting to weaken us when it was City who were having the better of the closing exchanges.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Breakdown

We love writing these pieces when there are so many 7+ scores to dish out. This is easily our highest collective rating for the starting eleven so far this season at 7.1.

The XI

Nick Pope – 7

Kieran Trippier – 7

Fabian Schär – 8

Dan Burn – 7

Lewis Hall – 7

Sandro Tonali – 7

Bruno Guimarães (c) – 7

Joelinton – 6

Jacob Murphy – 8

Anthony Gordon – 9 ⭐️

Harvey Barnes – 5 (off 77')

The Subs

Joe Willock – 6 (on 77')

Sean Longstaff – 5 (on 78')

Tino Livramento – 7 (on 78')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 7

The Opposition

Manchester City – 5

The Ref

Jarred Gillett – 5

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The Next

It's the rescheduled third-round Carabao Cup tie with AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night at St James' Park, which amazingly looks like it's going to be a sell-out. A home tie with Chelsea awaits the winners in the fourth round. Oh, how we'd love some revenge for last season...