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Terrific Tiote's Modest Mindset
Written by Newcastle Utd
Cheick Tiote was at his dominant best against Manchester City but insists 'I was just doing my job'
By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor
Cheick Tiote was at his dominant best on Tuesday night against Manchester City - but the modest midfielder insists 'I was just doing my job'.
Ivorian international Tiote was one of United's standout performers in their 1-1 draw with high-flying City, which has taken the Magpies to within two points of Barclays Premier League safety.
And while he relished mixing it - and coming out on top - with the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Fernando and Yaya Toure, 29-year-old Tiote is not getting carried away.
"When you play you need to enjoy yourself but also work hard in the right way," he said of his battle against the Citizens.
"I was just doing my job, just doing my best to help the team stay in the Premier League.
"That is what we are all doing - working together and doing everything we can to have a good end to the season.
"I think it was a good point. We would have preferred to win but we weren't able to, so we will take the one point and focus on building on it at Liverpool on Saturday.
"Before the game there probably weren't many people outside who thought we could get anything, but we knew we could.
"We conceded a poor goal. Right then we didn't know it was offside, we were just angry at conceding.
"But we put it out of our minds and tried to come back into the game as soon as possible.
"We didn't let our heads go down, we kept working hard and scored a great goal. We then pushed and pushed for a second, we created some good chances but we couldn't take them.
"We played together as a team, we worked hard and that is what we have to do until the end of the season if we want to stay up."
Tiote's appearance against the Manchester City was his third under new manager Rafa Benitez.
And the Ivory Coast international is enjoying working with the Magpies' boss.
"It is good. We do a lot of tactic work and you can see that in our performances," he continued.
"(Against Manchester City) we didn't give them many chances, we are compact as a team and if we continue like that we have a chance to stay in the Premier League.
"If we play like today, I think we have a good chance."