Part of the luxury of being Pep Guardiola is, evidently, confidence of the sort that lets you take risks that others might not.

On Tuesday, his Manchester City side lost at St. James' Park against a Newcastle team that had previously won just three of 12 home Premier League games. In those circumstances, page 17 of the "Proper Football Man's Coaching Manual" tells you to play it safe and get back to basics in your next game which, incidentally, was by no means a gimme. Arsenal may be rebuilding, but they have plenty of individual match winners and, in Unai Emery, a clever tactician on the bench.

Conventional wisdom and basic risk-reward suggested the downside of a second consecutive setback would be damaging to City, but Pep does not often do "conventional wisdom," which is why he played Aymeric Laporte at left-back -- a move that has had mixed results in the past -- while starting Fernandinho at center-back and deploying Ilkay Gundogan in front of the back four.

Such a selection, against a team that plays two genuine strikers in Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, is counterintuitive, but Guardiola trusted his instincts and was vindicated with a 3-1 victory. It is not as if City won because of those moves, but they did send a message -- to his players and, perhaps, to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp as well -- that Guardiola's self-belief knows no end; not many would have rolled the dice like that.

As for Arsenal, a long injury list that includes Hector Bellerin, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Rob Holding and Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a huge mitigating factor, but seeing the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka on the bench was further evidence that Emery is determined to turn the page.

We also saw Denis Suarez for the last 25 minutes, and it will be interesting to see in what role Emery sees him. It will require patience: Suarez played 90 minutes of league football just once in 2018, and his cameo against City represents the longest he has been on the pitch -- other than two games against third division Leonesa in the Copa del Rey -- since last May.

Barcelona must be less Messi-dependent

Ivan Rakitic was bullish after Barcelona's 2-2 draw against Valencia, saying his team "dominated" to the point where it looked like a "handball match." (I am not particularly familiar with handball, but I assume he means one of those sequences were one team sits back and the other keeps passing the ball around the perimeter).

However, the thing about that dominance is that it really only manifested itself once Barca were 2-0 down at home and Valencia opted to play on the counter and even then, the performance was nothing to write home about.

Arturo Vidal, Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez were all subpar, meaning that the difference maker was -- who else? -- Lionel Messi. His second-half equalizer, which came with a shot only he could see and only he could execute, will go straight into his future highlight reel.

The Spanish champions are slipping into Messi-dependency territory, and that must be a concern since the knock he took from Toni Lato leaves him doubtful for the midweek Clasico vs. Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey semifinal first leg. Incidentally, you wonder to what degree Barca's players were looking beyond Valencia; Jordi Alba, Clement Lenglet and Arthur were on the bench.

Atletico's defeat at Real Betis mitigates the damage somewhat, but Barca did not know on Saturday what would happen 24 hours later. All they knew was that Diego Simeone's crew had a chance to pull within three points, with a head-to-head at the Camp Nou yet to come, as well as away trips to Sevilla and Real Madrid.

It is not Ernesto Valverde's fault that it is so easy to let Messi carry the team or that Ousmane Dembele got hurt just as he was starting to carry more of the attacking load. However, after 18 months under this manager, it sometimes feels as if Barca are going backwards in terms of performance.

Juventus' surprise late implosion

OK, when was the last time you saw Juve give up a 3-1 lead and drop points? At home? In the final 16 minutes? Against a team from the bottom half of the table? Nope, me neither.

Credit Parma for believing and executing in Saturday's 3-3 draw. Folks will point at a Juve back four that consisted of the much-maligned Daniele Rugani, veteran Martin Caceres on debut in his third stint at the club, Leonardo Spinazzola making his first league start since March and Joao Cancelo, who is basically a winger playing full-back.

Would they have been better with the injured Leo Bonucci or Giorgio Chiellini (or Medhi Benatia, who moved to China)? Sure, but the real issue was the way their intensity dropped at the end of the match, and that is not just down to the defence.

Coming a few days after his side was knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Atalanta, Max Allegri was looking for a reaction. In fairness, for most of the match he got one, but that ending was distinctly un-Juvelike.

Solskjaer keeps winning