At the final whistle, Pep Guardiola and Eddie Howe almost fell into each other’s arms in an unusually long and warm embrace.

After the Manchester City manager’s verbal altercation with Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta and his Newcastle counterpart’s recently ended cold war with the club’s sporting director Paul Mitchell, it was almost reassuring to see the two exchange broad smiles during they whispered in each other’s ears.

For once it was probably pretty easy to agree that a draw was just the right result – even if it did take a great late save from Nick Pope to keep out Bernardo Silva’s volley that went home.

A change of footwear at the start of the first half had seen Kieran Trippier playing with his left foot illuminated by a neon peach boot, while his right was wrapped in a slightly more subtle purple design. However, in the 35th minute it suddenly looked as if Newcastle’s right-back, preferred here over Tino Livramento, had developed two left feet when Jack Grealish finally managed to evade his former England team-mate and score one with a clever early pass Goal to score opening for Josip Gvardiol.

After serving with his left foot, City’s left-back Dan Burn eliminated Dan Burn from the defensive equation by shifting the ball to his right foot. With Burn seemingly expecting a first shot, all Gvardiol had to do was direct a perfectly timed angled shot into the bottom corner.

Until then the conversation had been dimmer than the balmy September sun. Admittedly, Newcastle started in an extremely intense mode and showed the high, hard press that hasn’t been so much disrupted as non-existent in recent weeks.

The only problem was that Manuel Akanji regularly dropped out of City’s defense, helping Mateo Kovacic, Rico Lewis and Co. fill the Rodri-sized gap in the visitors’ midfield. As a result, Howe’s players became increasingly frustrated before they ran out of steam.

It meant that Grealish and Gvardiol, without ever really looking fluent, let alone truly threatening, were able to exploit a rare chink in the home team’s defensive armour. Erling Haaland probably viewed Burns’ role in that goal as divine retribution after reflecting on the large hole torn in a torn sock when the centre-back half’s studs had previously grazed his Achilles tendon in a slightly desperate tackle.

If Haaland was less involved than he had hoped, Ederson seemed happy to be reduced to a largely watching role. Proving that his concentration had not wavered, City’s goalkeeper made an excellent save from Joelinton just before half-time.

At the start of the second half, Ederson was beaten by Anthony Gordon on a penalty kick. It all started when the England winger met Joelinton’s lovely ball and, with Akanji wrong-footed, burst into the box and almost made contact with the goalkeeper as he ran towards his outstretched arm. Ederson was then booked for denying an obvious scoring opportunity, but remained on the pitch for an apparent attempt to pass the ball.

Within a nanosecond of that contact, Gordon, playing alongside Kyle Walker, was knocked to the ground and awarded a penalty. Normally Alexander Isak would have taken this kick, but the Swedish striker was missing with a broken toe, so Gordon not only acted as a center forward but tried his luck from 12 meters. Luckily for a winger who was on the verge of signing a long and lucrative contract extension after a troubled summer, the penalty was not only flawlessly taken but also sent Ederson the wrong way.

Meanwhile, tensions were rising on and off the pitch, made even more evident when Grealish and Sandro Tonali received yellow cards after an off-the-ball altercation. It was Tonali’s first appearance at Newcastle since returning from a 10-month ban for betting rule breaches, and the Italy international initially appeared to be Howe’s most composed midfielder before eventually fading. But despite his undoubted talent and intelligence, it remains to be seen whether Tonali really fits in so well with Howe’s obsession with high-energy, heavy metal football.

Sean Longstaff, Tonali’s second-half substitute, could have won the game for Newcastle but instead he fired an inviting first-time shot wide of the goal to make the game quite convincing.

Although substitutes Phil Foden and Savinho had raised the visiting tone, Newcastle were clearly heeding Howe’s pre-match instruction to step up and start justifying their starting berths. They protected Nick Pope so well that he had surprisingly little to do in goal for long stretches until the save from Silva’s aforementioned sublime volley denied City a win they didn’t quite deserve.