John Stones has warned Manchester City they must learn the lessons of their fears at Newcastle if they want to be successful again this season.
The reigning Premier League champions were 3-1 down at St James’ Park on Sunday before embarking on a concerted comeback to earn a 3-3 draw from a classic encounter.
Stones and his team-mates left Tyneside satisfied with their reaction to adversity but disappointed that their resilience had not picked up all three points and there was still work to be done.
The England defender told City TV: “Newcastle have been fighting at a high pace from the start and we had to keep up. I don’t think we made it after the first goal and that’s why we were penalised.
“The second half was a different game, a lot of chances, we found our rhythm a bit more and coming back like that and taking a point from the game is a credit to the lads and our fighting spirit.
“We have to improve again for the next game.”
City drove from Newcastle to a warm-weather training camp in Catalonia where they will play a friendly against Pep Guardiola’s former club Barcelona, a benefit game for former goalkeeper and coach Juan Carlos Unzue, who has been diagnosed with incurable amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Defender Nathan Ake will be sidelined with the groin injury that prompted his early retirement at St James’ Park but the players, who are being put through their paces in Spain, will hope to be able to tackle the troubles plaguing life in the North East made it so difficult.
After taking the lead through Ilkay Gündogan in the fifth minute, the hosts struck back as Miguel Almiron and Callum Wilson turned the game upside down before Kieran Trippier’s free-kick was awarded for Stones’ foul on the flying Allan Saint-Maximin has been awarded. made the magpies contemplate a famous victory.
However, Erling Haaland’s third goal in as many league games and a nice equalizer from Bernardo Silva restored the equalizer and Haaland could conceivably have won it as Guardiola’s men delivered a rousing finish.
When asked what it was like to play in such a grueling competition, Stones said: “Difficult, very difficult.
“We knew the quality they had and it was a difficult end-to-end game. We didn’t play at our usual level and we were a bit frustrated at the end.
“A stupid tackle from me on the edge of the box to kind of widen the game and then we showed great character to come back.
“Maybe we could have taken a few more chances, I think that was the feeling when we came off the field a bit dejected at the end, that we didn’t get away with the three points in the end.”
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