Guardiola Takes Charge Against Newcastle after Negative PCR Test

Pep Guardiola is free to take charge of Manchester City’s Premier League trip to Newcastle on Sunday after returning a negative PCR test.

Guardiola had to take a PCR test after a lateral flow test showed an inconclusive result upon his arrival at City’s training ground on Friday.

The former Barcelona head coach travelled to Catalonia this week to attend Sergio Aguero’s retirement news conference at the Nou Camp.

A 10-day isolation period would have ruled him out of the game at St James’ Park as well as the Boxing Day visit of Leicester City.

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Manchester City have won seven successive Premier League games, hammering Leeds 7-0 in midweek, and Guardiola urged his side to maintain that momentum against Newcastle.

“Everyone is fit, it’s just Ferran Torres missing,” said Guardiola. “Joao Cancelo is back after [his suspension against] Leeds and we will travel to Newcastle with everyone ready to play.

“It is not easy to go to Newcastle and get a result so we will need the whole team and hopefully we will be strong enough to get the points.

“Newcastle is a very tough opponent. People will talk about our place in the table or their place in the table but when you go to Newcastle you know what sort of game to expect.

“Now they have a new manager in Eddie Howe]and we know what a good manager he is.

“They have had a tough start to the season but they are a good team with good players and a top manager so we will go there and have to work hard for each other to win the game.”