Cabaye bye

Well it finally happened.  Yohan Cabaye is no longer a Magpie.  And while in paragraphs below I will try to put a better face on it, the bottom line is that this is definitive proof that I have joined the Church of Perpetual Mid-table Teams.  It's pretty clear that Newcastle believes it cannot compete for Champions League spots and will make personnel decisions accordingly.  Which of course means that they will continue to lose players who want to compete in Champions League.  Sounds like a vicious cycle.

But there are signs that while the CL is out, Newcastle will not see a major drop off despite the loss of Cabaye.  Newcastle got 2.5 years of Cabaye's prime and then sold him for a profit of something north of $20 million (if I have my pounds/dollars conversion right).  Of course, much depends on what they do with the money.  So far, they have signed Luuk de Jong, a talented striker from Holland, on loan for the rest of the season with an option to buy.  A serious offer for Clement Grenier, who really could be a replacement for Cabaye was turned down because Grenier "did not want to be seen as Cabaye's replacement" according to his agent.  The Remy Cabella deal, assuming it's not dead, looks to be a summer transfer window project.  My point is that with some transfers, Newcastle might find themselves no worse off than before Cabaye left. 

But there's the rub - no worse off means we're still an 8th place team.


No Mercy-side Derby

Well that wasn't what I had in mind.  Liverpool came out and flattened Everton 4-0 at Anfield in complete contrast to the exciting match in November.  Sturridge had two and Suarez got another; they are a formidable duo but it's fun to watch one of them get mad when the other screws up.   The other high profile match - Tottenham vs Manchester City - wasn't much better.  Actually, that's not true as the first half was a high energy affair.  But a second half goal, followed by a red card to Danny Rose and the subsequent PK pretty much ruined the match, which ended 5-1 for the visitors.  The red card on Rose might be debatable but the offside call? -  please, enough.  Look at :21 on the video, just as Eriksen strikes the ball.  Adebayor is clearly in an offside position and Dawson looks like he probably is too.  But even if you give Dawson the benefit of the doubt, check out Adebayor's action as the ball comes through; how is that not interfering with the keeper? 

Newcastle's first match without Cabaye ended in a goalless draw at Norwich.  While that may seem like proof that they need Cabaye, the Magpies dominated the match, especially the first half, and had three shots hit the post.  I'm going to view this as unlucky as opposed to revealing.  Speaking of unlucky, it appears they are heading into Saturday's derby vs Sunderland without Remy (red card suspension), Gouffran (injury) and Cisse (injury). 

Arsenal and Chelsea came up with only draws versus Southampton (thought that was a tough road match for the Gunners) and West Ham.  Which means that Manchester City enters the weekend in first.  But, with Arsenal hosting Crystal Palace on Sunday, Man City will likely need a win at home against Chelsea on Monday to hold on to it.

Dennis took in the AVL-WBA match and filed this report:
The West Midland's Derby was probably the match of the week, despite the first 12 minutes (which included 3 goals!) being un-watchable on Live Extra.  West Brom got started early with a laser volley from Brunt and Delph helped out the Baggies with an own goal a few minutes later.  Weimann got the Villans back in it after a bomb from Guzan [editor's note - who leads EPL in accurate long balls per game at 8.9, second best is Everton's Jagielka at 8.4, with the next best performer at 7.0] was steered right into his path for a pretty easy chip shot.  Bacuna leveled the match by turning what should have been an easy tap in into some kind of weird, spinning lob from 3 yards out.  4 goals in 25 minutes and they were just getting warmed up.  Delph scores for the correct side with his second goal of the season and his second absolute rocket to put the Villans up 3-2.  Benteke should have put Aston Villa up 4-2 after a perfect diagonal pass and a nice cut gets him all alone vs the keeper, but he manages not to score (or maybe the keeper made a great save, hard to tell).  Moments later, Mulumbu is able to convert his 1 on 1 opportunity with Guzan to once again level the score right before the half.
At this point, I have been entertained more than during most of Aston Villa's game combined, so I am definitely happy with a tie and almost pleased with a loss and the experience.  But the back and forth continued, with West Brom's Lugano missing a free header from a few yards out in the opening moments of the second half.  Benteke eventually broke the tie with a penalty after being pulled down in a headlock in the box by the very same Lugano.  By the book, it is the kind of call that should be a penalty all of the time and is actually a penalty half the time.  Lugano continued to get his name called, when he later picked up a yellow for dissent claiming he was taken down in the box under similar circumstances as Benteke.  The key difference is that Lugano was pulled down by his jersey, which is also technically a penalty, but is rarely actually called.  Aston Villa were able to steer a relatively clear path home from there and secured a valuable and well earned 3 points.  If only the Villans could play West Brom all season - in two matches, they have gone down 2-0 within 11 minutes twice and managed to score 6 goals and take 4 of 6 points.


Sounds like that will keep Dennis happy, at least until they face what will likely be a fired up Everton side on Saturday.  Ruh-roh.