Guardiola: What can I say? Kevin is a special player, he's a legend here
PEP Guardiola admits he is running out of superlatives for Manchester City 'legend' Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian midfielder came off the bench to fire City level before teeing up a stoppage-time winner for Oscar Bobb, the Norwegian youngster's first Premier League goal sealing a dramatic finish at St James' Park.
A third straight league victory pushed the World Champions up to second, two points behind Liverpool after De Bruyne underlined his importance following his return from a five-month injury absence.
"Kevin is a special player, what can I say?" Guardiola said. "He's a legend here, and he is loved by our fans. Five months is a long time to be out and hopefully, in the second part of the season, he can help us be there until the end.
"He's a player who I give a little more freedom to so he can move where his gut instinct tells him. When he has the ball we need runners because he will find them with his quality and his vision and his pure talent. He came up with some more magic tonight."
Guardiola joked that he had moaned at De Bruyne for not scoring with his first touch from a free-kick after his 69th-minute introduction.
He added: "I'm really happy with the team, we showed real personality and they showed me they want to be there, fighting until the end and that they want to retain the title."
Newcastle surged into a first-half lead as goals in the space of two minutes from Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon cancelled out Bernardo Silva's 26th-minute opener for City.
A fourth consecutive Premier League defeat was the latest blow to the Magpies' fading top-four hopes. Eddie Howe's side are 11 points adrift of the Champions League places, and the Newcastle boss insisted: "There's not a lot wrong with our
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