Nico O'Reilly scored twice as Manchester City beat Newcastle United 2-1 to put the pressure firmly on Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

Arsenal's slip-up at Wolves on Wednesday opened the door for Man City to close the gap to two points by beating Newcastle, and Pep Guardiola's team got the job done at the Etihad Stadium.

O'Reilly opened the scoring with a blistering first-time effort in the 14th minute, but Lewis Hall swiftly dragged Newcastle level via a deflected strike.

Parity lasted only five minutes, however, with Erling Haaland standing up a cross from which O'Reilly brilliantly headed home.

Dan Burn saw a goal disallowed for Newcastle before half-time, and though City sat off in the second half, the visitors could not find a leveller.

A pair of Nick Pope saves to frustrate Haaland and Phil Foden paved the way for a grandstand finale when Harvey Barnes won a corner at the other end, but the Newcastle goalkeeper – who rushed up for the set-piece – just failed to connect with a close-range header

Data Debrief: O'Reilly grabs first double as Marmoush wields his magic

O'Reilly will rightly get the headlines; he scored his first Premier League brace, on his 35th appearance in the competition, netting in consecutive home league games for the first time.

Marmoush, though, was a livewire. He has now been directly involved in six goals (five goals, one assist) in four games against Newcastle in all competitions, only against Bayern Munich (seven – three goals, four assists) has he been involved in more goals across his career in the big five European Leagues. The Egyptian led the game for shots (five), while also creating two chances.

City have won their 17th Premier League home game in a row against Newcastle United and their 33rd victory overall against the Magpies – more wins than against any other opponent in the competition.

However, they were on the back foot in the second half, with Newcastle having 52.3% possession, though the visitors only generated chances worth 0.32 expected goals after the break, and in the end, City's 1.35 total xG to the away team's 0.58 suggests the hosts had the edge.