Manchester City v Newcastle LIVE: Premier League latest score and goal updates and more today

No alarms for Khusanov so far, this is very different from the Chelsea game for him. There has also been a decent start by Gonzalez: a first – and obvious – impression is that he has the height and athleticism City have lacked in central midfield since Rodri was injured. He looks like a defensive midfielder: time will tell how good a one he is. But Ilkay Gundogan is probably relieved he has a more physical presence alongside him.

8 min: Savinho drives down the wing and cross towards the six-yard box, where Hall gets rid. Little of note in this opening exchanges.

3 min: City are probing early, with lots of the ball, but no sights of goal as yet. Guardiola is already animatedly redirecting his players who are not quite carrying out his instructions.

We’re underway. Newcastle are in their away strip – the maroon and navy horizontal stripes.

The players are out on the pitch at the Etihad Stadium… here we go! This should be a good game.

Some interesting team news as Erling Haaland captains City for the first time. There is added intrigue as the team includes Ilkay Gundogan, one of the five captains in the squad – the others are Kevin de Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Rodri – but the Treble-winning skipper doesn’t get the armband today. There are plenty of changes for City, with injuries one reason and the second leg against Real Madrid another. Nico Gonzalez gets his first Premier League start, Abdukodir Khusanov his second. He will hope it goes better than the first.

As mentioned before, the club that finishes in fifth is likely to get a place in the Champions League next season, easing some of the competition for places at the top.

But as it stands there are arguably six sides fighting for third, fourth and fifth, with Nottingham Forest sitting in third, four points above Chelsea currently.

Today’s game sees fifth-paced City face sixth-placed Newcastle, with both teams on the same points.

And it’s a high-flying Bournemouth side who are one point and one place below the Magpies, with Aston Villa three points further behind in eighth.

This is how the table looks currently:

3rd – Nottingham Forest, 47 points

4th – Chelsea, 43 points

5th – Manchester City, 41 points

6th – Newcastle, 41 points

7th – Bournemouth, 40 points

8th – Aston Villa, 37 points

City have conceded 57 goals in 38 fixtures this season – three more than they did in their 59 matches last season.

Newcastle have scored 11 goals and conceded just two in their last four away league matches.

These two sides have met 156 times in the past, with the first meeting dating back to 1893.

Earlier this season, they played out a 1-1 draw at St James Park.

Newcastle’s last win against City came in the Carabao Cup in September 2023, with City winning four of the last six meetings between the two.

The serial Champions League-winning manager sat in the media theatre at the Etihad Stadium and saluted his defence.

“I didn’t think the team were able to make such a sacrifice as they did this evening,” he said.

It wasn’t Pep Guardiola, though he fielded five men who were bought as centre-backs, who cost a combined £240m, four of whom began as the back four in a Champions League final when their side kept a clean sheet.

For City, it was the script of their season, shown to a wider audience. There is a broader narrative: that many do not realise how vulnerable this City are until they witness it. Even on an evening when, in terms of ambition and attacking threat, they delivered one of the best performances of their campaign, there came an end to sum it up.