90min

X reacts as Kevin De Bruyne's comeback stuns Newcastle

  • De Bruyne grabbed a goal and assist off the bench to steer Man City to victory
  • City lost Ederson to injury early on & struggled to break Newcastle down
  • Bernardo Silva & Oscar Bobb also on the scoresheet

By Tom Gott

De Bruyne made the difference
De Bruyne made the difference / Stu Forster/GettyImages
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The Premier League is on high alert. Kevin De Bruyne is back.

The Belgian maestro, who missed nearly five months with a hamstring problem, made his return to England's top flight on Saturday with a glorious cameo that showcased exactly what he is about. A goal and an assist in just 20 minutes will have the rest of the Premier League shaking.

Things got off to a miserable start for City as they lost goalkeeper Ederson to an entirely avoidable injury. Alexander Isak made an offside run but the official followed the rules did not stop play, allowing the goalkeeper to get caught on the knee inside 90 seconds. He'd limp off soon after.

To ease the pain, City eventually got themselves ahead through a delightful goal from Bernardo Silva.

Kyle Walker's low cross from the right was steered home with a sumptuous flick from the Portugal international, with City really starting to purr at this point.

There was some controversy to the goal, however, as Anthony Gordon had gone down following a collision with Ruben Dias in the build-up. Newcastle wanted the ball put out of play and Dan Burn voiced his frustrations by squaring up to the huddle of celebrating Cityzens.

Alexander Isak turned the game on its head soon after, getting in behind City's defence and ripping Walker in half en route to curling a stunning effort into Stefan Ortega's top corner.

Walker did not learn his lesson and was at fault for Anthony Gordon's goal just two minutes later.

Gordon ran at Walker, who gifted the winger an ocean of space, and the Newcastle man cut inside and curled an eerily similar effort to Isak, only this time, the ball ended up in the bottom corner.

With City struggling to find a breakthough in the second half, Pep Guardiola turned to his secret weapon.

On bounced the luscious locks of De Bruyne, whose first task was to take a free-kick. He couldn't, could he?

Turns out, no, he couldn't.

The scriptwriters weren't too far off with their comeback narrative. De Bruyne may not have scored with his first touch, but he did slot home with his fifth just four minutes after entering the action.

And to complete the story, it was that man again.

De Bruyne did what he does best, took control of proceedings and dinked a perfect ball over the top for Oscar Bobb, who took the ball round Martin Dubravka and tapped into an empty net in stoppage time to seal all three points.

Light the beacons. He's back.

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