Bashful De Bruyne happy to do his bits and Bobb
Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne celebrates scoring.
IT might appear to be mission impossible, and it certainly was a task beyond Newcastle United, but there is a way to stop Kevin De Bruyne and the key role he is set to have in Manchester City harvesting most of the available silverware again this season.
It's nothing to do with doubling-up defenders on him, or stifling his line of supply. You can stop clinical Kev in his tracks by simply showering him with praise, and telling him exactly how much you love him.
In short, KDB no can do PDA.
The Manchester City midfielder handles a football far better than he does public displays of affection. The strictly business-like Belgian admits he comes over all awkward when he's the centre of attention, as he has been for the last week following his welcome return from a five-month injury lay-off.
Given the adulation garnered by his super-human powers on the pitch, table-topping talents which were again in evidence at St James' Park, that reticence to embrace an embrace could be seen as something of a drawback, although the 32-year-old is happy to own his endearing gaucheness.
"I'm not the kind of person who goes around being emotional," he confessed after coming off a fantastically expensive City bench to engineer a victory that had remained in doubt until the final 15 minutes of this pulsating Tyneside encounter.
He added: "I just try to do my job, but I have felt what it means for the fans for me to come back in the team, and it makes me feel very loved."
De Bruyne had come up with an assist in taking his first tentative steps back in last week's 5-0 FA Cup dismantling of Huddersfield, but he had even more of an impact here, taking a Rodri through ball on the half turn and striding towards the edge of the Newcastle area before passing the equaliser into the bottom corner.
He'd been on the pitch just five minutes at that stage, but he hadn't done there as deep into stoppage time his precision pass into the area found the run of his fellow substitute Oscar Bobb.
There was still plenty for the young Norwegian to do, but he made a difficult finish look ridiculously easy with the quickest of feet to add to Kieran Trippier's recent spate of on-field woes as the England full-back was left floundering.
De Bruyne's line in self-deprecation was almost as impressive as his pass. "I think that goal was about 80 per cent Oscar," he added, attempting to deflect the praise towards his youthful team-mate, who carried out Pep Guardiola's instructions to the letter in netting his first Premier League goal. "The manager just told me to go on and score," he said after helping De Bruyne become the first City player since Sergio Aguero a decade ago to score and assist after coming off the bench.
Given their cast of thousands who are out through injury, Newcastle could have been forgiven for folding once Bernardo Silva put the visitors ahead midway through the first-half with a delicious flicked finish which had his marker Fabian Schar still searching for the ball long after it had gone into Martin Dubravka's net.
It was the prelude to more goals, but to the utter amazement of just about everyone inside St James' Park, they both came at the other end. In the space of two minutes, Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon curled home stunning efforts past substitute keeper Stefan Ortega. Guardiola was unable immediately after the game to shed much light on the extent of the knee injury that forced Ederson off early on following a collision with Sean Longstaff.
Had Isak not been thwarted by Ortega in an inviting one-on-one before the break things might have panned out differently, but a single goal lead never looked enough for the hosts to safely navigate their way through a second-half where they were pinned in their own half for the large part, with De Bruyne coming on to deliver the killer blows late on.
"I said thank you to him after," Bobb added, in something akin to KDB's dreaded PDA. The 20-year-old added: "Kevin is the only player in the world who could make that pass and to play with him is great. He's not only one of the greatest players in the Premier League, he's a very nice guy."
Dubravka 8; Trippier 7, Schar 8, Botman 8, Burn 7; Miley 7, Guimaraes 7, Longstaff 6; Almirón 7, Isak 8, Gordon 8 (Hall 86, 6).
Ederson 3 (Ortega 8, 5); Walker 6, Ruben Dias 6, Ake 6, Gvardiol 6; Rodri 7, Kovacic 6; Foden 7, Bernardo Silva 8 (De Bruyne 69, 9), Doku 6 (Bob 82, 8); Alvarez 7.
: Chris Kavanagh
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