Kevin De Bruyne has named Newcastle United as the toughest away ground to play at - and the Manchester City captain has explained why he snubbed Liverpool's Anfield as the top choice.
City won the Treble last season and had differing fortunes on the road when head to both Newcastle and Liverpool.
At St James' Park, the spoils were shared in a 3-3 thriller between the two sides, while Liverpool claimed all three points with a 1-0 victory at Anfield.
But only picking up one point from those two games did not stop City winning the top flight title for a fifth time in the space of six seasons, as well as completing a historic Treble with the captures of the FA Cup and the Champions League at long last.De Bruyne is currently on the sidelines due to injury and could be out of action for up to four months, having suffered the setback in City's Premier League curtain raiser against Burnley at Turf Moor.
He has recently been quizzed on which away Premier League grounds he finds the toughest, with the choice given to him between Anfield, St James' Park and Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.
The playmaker put Newcastle's home at number one, with Liverpool's stadium in second and the Gunners' ground in third - and he outlined the reasons why.De Bruyne believes that even when things are not going well for the Magpies, the atmosphere is still a good one to play in.And explaining why he placed Anfield second, De Bruyne explained that though the atmosphere is still up there for an evening game or a Champions League encounter, he feels it is less so when a match begins around lunchtime.
Speaking to Sky Sports, De Bruyne said: "Even when they [Newcastle] were not going well, the atmosphere was still quite good. I think for Liverpool, I saw a difference, like obviously it’s a big game between us, but I feel like there’s a difference when it’s Champions League or a night game than when you play a 12 o’clock kick off.
“I feel these two [Newcastle and Liverpool] are a bigger atmosphere than Arsenal. I feel like last year was much, much better. Obviously it’s been tough for them, the years before it was a little bit less.”
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