Title race thrown open as Manchester City beat Newcastle

Manchester City moved to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a tense victory over Newcastle United at the Etihad Stadium.

The Gunners opened the door for City by squandering a two-goal lead against Wolverhampton Wanderers in midweek, but Newcastle made Pep Guardiola’s side fight all the way for a vital three points.

Nico O’Reilly’s two first-half goals, either side of Lewis Hall’s equaliser, set the platform for City’s victory, piling pressure on Arsenal before Sunday’s north London derby at Tottenham Hotspur (16:30 GMT).

Newcastle, however, showed little sign of fatigue from their 5,000-mile round trip to Azerbaijan to face Qarabag in a Champions League play-off, giving City plenty to worry about in the second half before the win was secured.

City, knowing victory would move them to within touching distance of Arsenal, made a predictably fast start and went ahead in the 14th minute. O’Reilly’s shot carried too much power for Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope, who should have done better after getting a hand to the effort.

Newcastle posed threats of their own and were soon level, Hall’s shot deflecting past Gianluigi Donnarumma off Rayan Ait-Nouri after City failed to clear a corner.

City briefly lost momentum but regained the lead after 27 minutes when Antoine Semenyo showed more desire than Nick Woltemade to play in Erling Haaland, who delivered a perfect cross for O’Reilly to head home at the far post.

Nerves were frayed inside the Etihad in the closing stages, and it took a huge save from Donnarumma to deny Harvey Barnes in the dying seconds before City could finally celebrate.