HAALAND CAN LEND A HAND

City ‘assist’ angle to help slap down Toon

- by ALEX HANKIN

BACK Erling Haaland to show class is permanent when Manchester City welcome an upbeat Newcastle United this evening.

On one level, it’s essentially a tale of two goalgetters - one who's being a bit hyped up and one a bit hyped down.

Toon record-breaker Anthony Gordon's display of let's call it single-mindedness on Wednesday night will surely have warmed the cockles of every punter in the land, except for every punter in the land who had Nick Woltemade to score.

Gordon, who had already notched his hat-trick against Azerbaijani makeweights Qarabag in the Champions League knockout first leg, refused to hand over penalty duties to the Toon’s 6ft 6in German striker.

Here came the gift horse, to give Woltemade’s backers a kick in the cobblers.

With four first-half goals to his credit, greedy Gordon was then rested-off after 68 minutes. He went with a face like a slapped behind, too, which bodes well for the trip to the Etihad (8pm).

It's about the only thing that does.

The sides have met four times in the past 12 months, with a combined score of 10-3 in favour of City.

Haaland was even given most of the night off when Newcastle lost 3-1 away in the Carabao Cup earlier this month.

It's highly unlikely he'll start on the bench tonight, nor is Pep Guardiola fancied to sleepwalk into allowing Gordon endless room to roam, like his Qarabag counterpart did in midweek.