5 takeaways from Manchester City's win over Newcastle United

#5 Newcastle caused the referee some trouble

Gayle is booked for his dive

The home side may count themselves lucky that City didn’t dispose them in the first half, but they were perhaps fortunate not to go down to ten men in the first half when Murphy went in high on Ilkay Gündogan. Referee Andre Mariner decided against showing a card at all; perhaps a yellow card would have sufficed but he was lucky to get away with it.

In the second half, too, Gayle was booked for a blatant dive when he could have got a shot away. Other than that, though, Newcastle simply weren’t aggressive enough in key moments of the game to warrant anything from the game. With Brighton, Stoke and Swansea on the horizon, they must change their approach.