Manchester City boosted their Premier League title hopes with an important 2-1 victory over Newcastle United on Saturday.Nico O’Reilly scored two goals at the Etihad Stadium. It gave City the lead in the first half, and after Lewis Hall equalized for Newcastle, O’Reilly scored again to secure the victory.
City were not at their best, but they did enough to win. The result puts them two points behind league leaders Arsenal.Arsenal travel to Tottenham on Sunday, but whatever happens in that match, City are in control of the title race. They will have a game in hand after this weekend and will host Arsenal in April. If City win their remaining 11 games, they will guarantee themselves another league title under Pep Guardiola.Guardiola had said on Friday that he “couldn’t care less” about Arsenal’s recent slip-up. Arsenal have won just two of their last seven league games, while City are improving at the right time.The victory over Newcastle was City’s fifth in a row in all competitions and extended their unbeaten run to eight games.It was already the fourth time the two teams had met this season, with a fifth meeting scheduled for next month in the round of 16 of the FA Cup.Newcastle have yet to win a Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium, losing 20 times there. They also lost to City in the League Cup semi-finals this season.After traveling 5,000 miles to Baku for their Champions League play-off match against Qarabag on Wednesday, Newcastle were very tired. Due to the long travel, they asked the Premier League to move their match in Manchester from early kick-off to Saturday evening.City started the game quickly, trying to take advantage of Newcastle’s fatigue.They scored in the 14th minute. Erling Haaland passed the ball to Omar Marmoush, who then set up O’Reilly. O’Reilly fired from the edge of the box past Nick Pope.Newcastle almost scored immediately. Anthony Gordon shot hard, but goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved it.City’s defense made mistakes and in the 22nd minute Newcastle scored. City failed to clear the ball from a corner. Lewis Hall shot from outside the area and the ball hit Rayan Ait-Nouri and into the net.City scored again five minutes later. Haaland crossed the ball into the box and O’Reilly headed in for his second goal.In the second half, Hall almost scored again, but his shot went wide.City manager Pep Guardiola was unhappy that his team failed to score another goal, and urged his players to “keep the ball better” as he stalked the touchline. Antoine Semenyo also missed a good opportunity.In the end, City held on and won the game.