Anthony Gordon netted a second-half penalty to earn Newcastle United a 1-1 draw against Manchester City at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.
After last weekend’s furious 2-2 draw with championship rivals Arsenal, the Spaniard suffered a catastrophic knee injury and will miss the remainder of the season.
Newcastle deserved a point after Anthony Gordon’s second-half penalty after Josko Gvardiol put the visitors ahead at St James’ Park.
City lead the table by two points, but Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Arsenal might catch them by the weekend.
Guardiola said Rodri, who hasn’t lost in 52 Premier League games since February 2023, is “irreplaceable” but promised to find a solution.
Alongside Mateo Kovacic, teenager Rico Lewis was thrown into centre midfield.
Rodri’s control and poise on and off the ball were missing for City.
“It is always difficult here with their physicality and they defend so deep. We had chances but (Nick) Pope (the goalkeeper) was brilliant so we take the point,” said Guardiola.
“We made bad decisions (with the chances) to make it 2-0.”
Although Newcastle has only dropped one of its six Premier League games this year, their performances have been superior to Eddie Howe’s team thus far.
“That was a good display, that was us playing our way, brave,” said Howe.
“It was two teams going right at each other for probably 70 minutes. Last 20 minutes they were stronger than us and we had to defend really well to maintain the point.”
Before Gvardiol, on the 35th minute, gathered Jack Grealish’s pass inside the box and executed a finish Erling Haaland would have been proud of, curling a low shot into the far corner, neither team had really threatened.
Pope’s clearing fell to Ilkay Gundogan, who mishit his attempted lob of the England custodian instead of finding Haaland, and City could have increased their lead soon.
To test Ederson, Newcastle had to wait until first-half stoppage time.
Joelinton wonderfully deflected a Kieran Trippier free kick and shot goalward, but his Brazil teammate stopped him.
But Newcastle was rewarded for a strong second half performance; they appear to be a far better team than the one that lost 3-1 to Fulham last Saturday.
Gordon attempted to round the custodian but Ederson caught him from behind.
With confidence, the England international scored the penalty by picking himself up.
Newcastle had the champions hanging on, encouraged by the boisterous home crowd.
When Ederson veered off his line to deny Gordon, Kyle Walker challenged Joelinton, and referee Jarred Gillett denied demands for a second penalty.
Guardiola countered by bringing on Phil Foden, the Premier League player of the previous campaign, and City regained momentum to finish impressively.
Foden’s attempt to grab all three points was the best for City, as he shot too near to Pope.
Pope also had to make an incredible save to save Bernardo Silva’s volley.
In stoppage time, Haaland again moved towards the goalie, and for the first time this season in the Premier League, the Norwegian was unable to score.
Sean Longstaff missed a fantastic opportunity in the last ten minutes that would have given City their first loss of the season.
However, the lost points give City’s opponents for the crown more hope that their hold on the championship is starting to wane.
