Newcastle United 0-1 Manchester City: 5 Talking Points

#2 Benitez has serious January business to do

Amidst all the takeover talks and hospital drips, Rafa Benitez's men are going through a very tough period. The match was done and dusted the very second Jonjoe Shelvy went for goal straight from kickoff with as speculative a strike as you're ever going to see.

The lack of quality is there for all to see and Benitez would be happy that they conceded only one. The Spaniard made 5 changes to his squad and quite clearly, it is the 3 points on offer against Brighton in the weekend that excites Rafa more at this point than the opportunity to cause a genuine upset.

But you can't blame him either. Unless Newcastle pull off some good business in the winter transfer window, it will be quite difficult to turn things around. For this very reason, the Magpies may easily end up fighting for survival with the relegation battlers breathing down their necks now.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Shambhu Ajith