City attended St James’s Park last night in the knowledge that for the first time in recent weeks the fixture list had placed them ahead of title rivals Liverpool. Victory would have sent them to within a point of the Scouse Challengers and heaped pressure on Liverpen when Leicester visit tonight.
So the stage was set, but City failed the audition. Despite scoring after only 24 seconds when Sergigol made his usual Tyneside presence known, City slipped down through the gears with copious amount of uncharacteristic football. Or is it uncharacteristic. More like unprofessional.
Around Christmas we saw City lose against bottom feeders Crystal Palace and mid- table bogey team Leicester City to leave themselves teetering on the brink of failing to retain the Premier League title.