Live match preview – Newcastle vs Man City 19.12.2021

Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Newcastle vs Man City in the Premier League on Sunday; kick-off 2pm.

Team news

Newcastle forward Allan Saint-Maximin is a doubt for the visit of Manchester City after limping off in Thursday’s defeat at Liverpool with a muscular injury.

Striker Callum Wilson will return to the team after being rested at Anfield.

Left-back Jamal Lewis is set for a spell out after sustaining a hamstring injury in the 3-1 defeat, while fellow defenders Federico Fernandez (thigh) and Paul Dummett (calf) remain out.

Joao Cancelo is available again for Man City after serving a one-match suspension in midweek.

The champions check on fellow full-back Kyle Walker, who missed Tuesday’s 7-0 victory over Leeds through reported illness, but Bernardo Silva is expected to be fit despite being substituted with a muscular problem.

Ferran Torres is set to be out until next month with a broken foot.

How to follow

Newcastle vs Man City is live on Sky Sports Premier League from 1.30pm; kick-off 2pm. Sky Sports customers can watch in-game clips in the live match blog on the Sky Sports website and app. Highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after the final whistle.

Last time out…

Jones Knows prediction

Trying to wow you with a value-soaked bet for a Manchester City match is such a tricky task. Such is their complete dominance in matches, almost every potential betting angle for anything positive regarding goals, shots or match outcomes is just too obvious to seriously make a case for at such skinny odds. Will they win? Of course. Do I want to advise punters getting on a 1/7 with Sky Bet? Absolutely not.

Kevin de Bruyne looked back to his best in midweek, perhaps his shot lines are worth a play? Nope. He’s 8/13 to have four or more shots. It’s a ridiculously short price.

With a routine, job-done type of performance expected from City, my eyes have wandered to the cards markets with the likelihood of Allan Saint-Maximin being ruled out for this one. The French winger picked up a muscular injury at Liverpool and hobbled off and with him unavailable, the chances of cards drops significantly.

Manchester City’s fixtures against bottom half teams have a tendency to produce a low card count anyway due to the one-sided nature of the match where the game could be over by 60 minutes. In six of their eight meetings with bottom-10 teams this season, there has been less than three cards in the match. When you throw a lenient official into the mix in the shape of Martin Atkinson, who has shown less than three cards in five of his last seven matches and averages just 2.3 cards per 90 minutes this season, then the under 30 bookings points looks worth taking at 6/5 with Sky Bet.

SCORE PREDICTION: 0-2

BETTING ANGLE: Under 30 booking points (6/5 with Sky Bet)

Opta stats

• Newcastle have won just one of their last 27 Premier League games against Manchester City (D4 L22), winning 2-1 at St James’ Park in January 2019.
• Manchester City have scored in each of their last 25 Premier League games against Newcastle, last failing to do so in a 0-0 draw in November 2006. In the competition’s history, only Arsenal have had a longer scoring streak against a specific opponent (26 vs West Brom).
• Newcastle picked up their first Premier League win of the season in their last home game, beating Burnley 1-0. They’ve not won back-to-back Premier League home games since December 2019.
• Manchester City have won 33 Premier League games in 2021 – one more victory will see them set a new top-flight record for most wins in a single calendar year.
• Manchester City have won each of their last seven Premier League games, scoring 20 goals and conceding just three. It’s more wins than the Citizens had picked up in their first 10 league games this term (W6 D2 L2).
• Against no side have Manchester City netted more Premier League hat-tricks than they have against Newcastle (3), with Ferran Torres scoring a treble in this exact fixture last season.
• Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has lost all 10 of his Premier League games against Manchester City – the worst 100% losing record any manager has against a specific opponent in the competition’s history.
• Riyad Mahrez has scored 49 goals in 164 games for Manchester City in all competitions, with only Sergio Agüero (61), Gabriel Jesus (63) and Raheem Sterling (76) netting more for the Citizens since he joined the club in 2018.

Latest Essential Football Podcast

On this week’s show we hear from former Tottenham defender Michael Dawson, and Peter Smith is joined by Sky Sports football journalists Gerard Brand, Ben Grounds and Adam Bate to look ahead to the Premier League weekend.

PART 1 | After a series of postponements, Tottenham return to the field against a flying Liverpool side on Sunday. Just how hard is that as a player? Michael Dawson assesses the challenge facing Antonio Conte’s men.

PART 2 | Arsenal had a good midweek, moving fourth in the Premier League table with a win over West Ham. Can they stay there? Gerard Brand discusses their prospects. Plus, Ben Grounds tells us about his sitdown with Marcelo Bielsa in the wake of Leeds’ awful 7-0 defeat at the hands of Man City.

PART 3 | Indeed, Pep Guardiola’s side are on the title charge, with seven wins in a row. Adam Bate explains how the manager’s way of playing allows City to go on such devastating winning streaks – and, at the other end of the table, what their opponents this weekend, Newcastle, must do to stay up.