{"id":483275,"date":"2026-02-22T05:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483275\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T05:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T05:26:09","slug":"man-citys-massive-win-over-newcastle-piles-pressure-on-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483275\/","title":{"rendered":"Man City’s ‘massive’ win over Newcastle piles pressure on Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb 21, 2026, 06:15 PM ET<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola hailed a “massive” win after title-chasing Manchester City<\/a> held on for a crucial yet nervy victory over Newcastle<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Nico O’Reilly struck twice as City edged out the Magpies 2-1<\/a> at the Etihad Stadium to cut Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League<\/a> to two points.<\/p>\n

– 654 and counting: Milner becomes PL record holder<\/a><\/p>\n

Manager Guardiola now wants his players to focus on their next game, at Leeds next Saturday, without getting distracted by the wider title picture.<\/p>\n

The City boss said: “It was massive. Newcastle are an incredible team.<\/p>\n

“That game today is what we are going to face in the next 11. Every game will be like that, a battle.<\/p>\n

“Now we have three days off. I say to them ‘what you have to do is take a lot of caipirinhas and daiquiris in these next three days, enjoy life,’ and then we make proper sessions and go to Leeds.<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola embraced Erling Haaland after Man City’s win over Newcastle.\u00a0Stu Forster\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“That is the proper way. If we say ‘we win this, then Arsenal<\/a> do this or Aston Villa’ … [you get a] slap in the face and what you thought [would happen], the opposite happens.<\/p>\n

“I know how difficult it will be. Just win the next game, keep going, never give up. Ten games is a lot in the Premier League. Many things are going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Buoyed by Arsenal’s unexpected draw against Wolves in midweek, the game began amid a raucous atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The mood was more anxious by the end as Newcastle pressed late on, but Guardiola felt the crowd helped City to the three points.<\/p>\n

“The vibe and the connection with our fans today was the best of the season,” he said. “We have five [home] games left in the Premier League and we need that vibe.”<\/p>\n

O’Reilly’s double came either side of a deflected Lewis Hall<\/a> equaliser, rewarding City for a strong first-half showing.<\/p>\n

“The win was the most important thing,” O’Reilly said. “Try to close the gap as well as apply as much pressure as possible, but [I’m] also very happy with the two goals.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lot of games to go, we just need to take each game as it comes.”<\/p>\n

PA and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 21, 2026, 06:15 PM ET Pep Guardiola hailed a “massive” win after title-chasing Manchester City held on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-483275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}