Alan Shearer and Eddie Howe disagree over Newcastle United vs Man City incident

Referee Jarred Gillett awarded the Magpies a penalty near the hour-mark when Anthony Gordon went to ground under a challenge from goalkeeper Ederson. Gordon then stepped up to convert, cancelling out Josko Gvardiol’s opener.

There was a debate over whether Gillett - and VAR - had reached the correct decision. It was perhaps telling that Alan Shearer, Newcastle’s record goal scorer believes the wrong call was made.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Shearer wrote: “I didn’t think it was a pen. That ok?”

Man City boss Pep Guardiola was unable to give a definitive on the decision, saying: “I didn’t see it. I don’t know if Ederson touched Anthony Gordon but a penalty is a penalty, it is what it is.”

But Eddie Howe, United’s head coach, believes the correct call was reached. He said: “Yeah, I mean, Anthony has done well to keep himself onside. It's a good team move, I think he's clipped and going at that speed, that's all it takes to go down.”

Shearer, however, admits the game may have evened itself out when Joelinton was denied a penalty under a nudge from Kyle Walker.

The Newcastle legend commented “that was far more of a penalty”. Still, Howe’s side were pleased with their point to bounce back from last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at Fulham.

“I think that's one of the beauties of this game, you always get another chance to put something right and to believe a much better imprint of what you're about,” said Howe.

“We did do that, we leave the pitch not having won the game but we leave with our heads held high and a much better representation of what we're about. Now, the challenge for us is to find that consistently. There's no better game to do that with than the cup game we have in midweek.

“It's another brilliant challenge for us to try and progress again in another important competition and to se really high standards in terms of attitude.”