Zero to hero Barnes forgets misses to leave Pep sour
BOUNCE BACK: Newcastle United's Harvey Barnes celebrates after scoring their second goal against Manchester City at St James' Park (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images)
Harvey Barnes went from panel-beater to world-beater in little more than half-hour to perfectly highlight the insecurities of the modern Premier League footballer.
"I don’t think I was the most popular man at half-time," he confessed after a transformational second-half that leaves the 27-year-old entertaining the intriguing prospect of having his pick of countries to represent at next summer's World Cup finals.
Such a privileged scenario appeared improbable after a couple of woeful misses looked likely to leave Newcastle reflecting on what might have been. However, after employing full goldfish mode to quickly move on from his early ineptitude, two goals in the space of seven second-half minutes secured Eddie Howe's 100th victory as Magpies boss and with it consigned Manchester City to their worst start to a season for five years.
Barnes added: "The quicker you move on from missed chances, the quicker you bounce back so it was a case of forget about it and move on."
A pass-back of a supposed shot to Gianluigi Donnarumma from 18 yards and a failure to divert the ball into an empty net from point blank range were both eminently forgettable.
Newcastle remain in the bottom half of the table despite a much-needed win, and he added: "I was glad to make up for it in the second half."
Make up for it he did, passing his side ahead from the edge of the area with a precision low finish before a neat bit of improvisation saw him backheel the hosts in front for a second time after reacting first when a Bruno Guimaraes header came back off the bar.
"It feels great to be the match-winner," Barnes added. "It's a big result and one we definitely needed on the back of a few poor ones. What a game to be involved in."
Burnley-born Barnes has not ruled out switching international allegiance to play for Scotland and his latest eye-catching contribution will only intensify talk of a spot of Stateside overtime next summer.
His sole England cap arrived in a friendly against Wales five years ago and although he must be in the mix for Thomas Tuchel given the fluctuating form of rivals for a left-wing spot like Marcus Rashford and club team-mate Anthony Gordon, Barnes remains eligible to represent Steve Clarke's World Cup-bound side through maternal grandparents.
The Newcastle forward added: "There's always been talk about it. I've obviously played for England but I know the eligibility side is still there so it's hard to say. It's not something I've really put too much thought into but it was great to see Scotland get through.
"There’s a long way to go until the summer. The club form hasn’t been there at the moment and my only focus is on the games we’ve got coming up.”
Ruben Dias levelled for City at a ground where he had scored his previous Premier League goal four years earlier, but it wasn't enough to prevent a damaging defeat.
It left Pep Guardiola seeking to vent his frustration towards anyone within range at the final whistle as he took to the pitch to go toe-to-toe with the match officials, Newcastle's Brazil midfielder Guimaraes and a hapless cameraman who had the temerity to get a little too close.
"It could have been a different outcome," Matheus Nunes admitted, with reference to the chances frittered away by the visitors.
Phil Foden was chief culprit on a largely anonymous evening for Erling Haaland. The Norwegian remains on 99 goals as Newcastle denied the prolific forward a chance, on Alan Shearer's doorstep, to beat his record for the swiftest Premier League century - even if it is only a stay of execution as far as the Geordie icon's place in the record books goes for that particular statistic.
Bayer Leverkusen may feel the backlash when they arrive in Manchester for Tuesday's Champions League meeting with Guardiola's side, and Portugal international Nunes added: "We had a lot of chances. If we'd converted them then you'd be talking about a different game but they took theirs and we didn't take ours - so it is what it is.
"Today wasn't our day. There's no magical explanation. Any defeat is frustrating but it's good that we have another game in three days and that's our focus now. There's still a lot of points to play for this season and I'm pretty sure we're going to be there in the end."
(4-3-3): Pope 7; Livramento 7, Thiaw 8, Schar 7, Hall 7 (Botman 77, 6); Guimaraes 8, Tonali 6, Joelinton 6; Murphy 7, Woltemade 7 (Willock 85, 5), Barnes 8 (Elanga 85, 5).
(4-3-3): Donnarumma 8; Nunes 6, Ruben Dias 7, Gvardiol 7, O'Reilly 7; Bernardo Silva 6 (Reijnders 77, 6), Gonzalez 6, Foden 5 (Marmoush 87, 6); Cherki 6 (Bobb 77, 6), Haaland 6, Doku 8 (Savinho 76, 6).
Sam Barrott
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