Mediocrity Exposed

Well, Newcastle - Burnley went about as expected.  Two sides with extremely well-organized defenses but not much quality up top.  Burnley got the 1-0 win but this could have easily been 0-0, 1-1 or even 1-0 in favor of the Magpies.  Except close only counts in horseshoes and atom bombs; it's another loss.  You cannot win if you do not score.  Newcastle's four wins have come against the 14th, 16th, 17th and 20th place teams.  This is not a top ten team. They are lower table and without improvements could find themselves dragged into a relegation battle (again).

Picture says it all as Hendrick celebrates goal in 74th
minute while Elliot and LeJeune react

Wonder if we'll see something different than Joselu/Perez up top on Saturday.  Benitez just doesn't seem to trust Mitrovic and I trust Benitez so maybe there's something happening on the training ground.  Still, I'd like to see something different.

Surprisingly, Newcastle is generating transfer news and seems to be hunt for Besiktas striker Cenk Tosun, who does have a pretty good track record of scoring goals.  At £20 million pounds it's hard to believe that this could happen with Ashley trying to sell the club but there are some players Benitez could jettison to generate the cash.  Very positive if true.

Not enough news on the sale of the club to justify a picture of Amanda Staveley. Maybe next week.


Tepid Viewing

A somewhat unsatisfying weekend, at least for the neutral.  Man United - Tottenham wasn't all that great. Spurs were on the toothless side without Kane and Man United didn't generate that many chances either.  That was a nice flick-on from Lukaku to Martial for the game winner in the 81st minute though.  Arsenal spotted Swansea a goal but came back to win 2-1. A stoppage time goal made the West Brom - Man City match look a little closer than it actually was but the 3-2 win keeps the Citizens firmly in first.  Can't remember much of Chelsea's 1-0 win over Bournemouth except that Hazard got his first goal of the season.  Liverpool made short enough work of Huddersfield with a 3-0 win.

I switched from the Liverpool-Huddersfield match to see most of Crystal Palace - West Ham.  Slaven Bilic was looking safe with the Hammers up 2-0 but a stupid PK got the Eagles back into the match at 50 minutes and the rest was highly entertaining.  Zaha rescued a draw with a goal in the 97th minute.   There's just something compelling about matches at the lower levels when EPL survival is at stake. I don't mean to suggest it's high quality football but it is quite watchable.  Somehow, Bilic survives for another weekend. The other surprising match for me was Brighton (& Hove Albion) drawing with Southampton.  Great attacking football that ended 1-1.  Great names on the Siegels Seagulls. Dunk. Gross. Propper.  Bong.  If they weren't so competitive with Newcastle, I'd definitely be on board with them.

So the week ends with Man City at the top with 28 points,  five over Man United and eight ahead of  Tottenham. Chelsea and Arsenal have 19 each, with Chelsea ahead on goal differential.  Newcastle sit in 9th.


The Boring Boring West

Were there two more unwatchable matches last week than the 0-0 draws in the first legs of the Western Conference semi-finals?  The key moment of the Houston-Portland match was the video review that overturned the PK that might have given Houston and 1-0 win.  Vancouver-Seattle didn't even generate that level of excitement.  And what is up with the Houston field?  More divots than a public golf course.  The second leg in Seattle started out with more of the same but the Sounders did manage two goals in the second half and advance to the conference finals.  Portland-Houston return leg is Sunday night.

More interesting viewing in the East.  A tight contest in New Jersey as Toronto got a quick 1-0 lead but the Red Bulls leveled things in first half stoppage time.  A Sebastian Giovinco free kick (this week's YouTubeableMoment) gave Toronto a second road goal and a significant 2-1 lead heading into the second leg.  The possible move of Columbus to Austin provided extra drama as the Crew faced NYCFC in the second semi-final.  Columbus also got a early 1-0 lead but things were still pretty tight in the second half - until Callens got a straight red for an elbow to the face.  Columbus took advantage to get to a 3-0 lead but Villa pinched one back.  Not great but 1-3 heading home with a road goal might have been salvagable.  Except a stoppage time tally restored the three goal advantage.  Having fun with names, it was an Afful goal despite Brilliant defending (you can look it up).


Leaving the Union

So the exodus begins.  The Union declined options on nine players and announced that two more are out of contract.  Details in this article.  Among the casualties are Alberg, Edu, Herbers, Ilsinho, Onyewu, Pontius and Wijnaldum (and maybe Fabinho).  A little surprised about Herbers but apparently that was because his salary will now count against the cap; Stewart may try to resign him at a lower salary.  Stewart wouldn't mind keeping Ilsinho but not at $500k.  These moves (plus the retirement of Brian Carroll) could clear almost $3 million off the payroll.  That would certainly provide the funds for some serious shopping this winter.


Chester Blues

Life on the virtual pitch continues to be good.  We did fail to win for the first time this year when Aston Villa scored in the 93rd minute to snatch a 2-2 draw.  But a gamble to rest key players in the League Cup match against very tough Man City paid off when they got a man sent off early and we coasted to a 3-1 win.  With rested first teamers, we handled Arsenal 5-1.  Undisciplined, my ass.


Something Has To Give

For some reason, instead of spreading the second legs of the conference semi-finals over several days, MLS put one on Thursday night and three on Sunday.  This is on top of EPL deciding to schedule four Sunday matches instead of the usual two.  Even moving the clocks back an hour isn't going to help me.  Here's the full list:

7 am           Tottenham-Crystal Palace (NBCSN)
9:15 am      Man City - Arsenal (NBCSN)
11:00 am    Conte - Mourinho Chelsea - Man United (NBCSN)
11:00 am    Everton-Watford (NBC Gold)
3 pm          Toronto FC - Red Bulls (ESPN)
5 pm          NYCFC - Columbus (ESPN)
7:10 pm     Portland - Houston (FS1)

On paper, Spurs should be walking over Crystal Palace but we like watching Tottenham plus it's been fun following the Eagles' car crash of a season.  The Gunners have recovered from some early stumbles to get up to 5th place but mostly at the expense of mediocre sides; Man City will be a much sterner test.   Hopefully the Chelsea-Man United match will end up being about the players, not the managers.  Maybe skip Everton-Watford though it might be interesting to see if the Toffees can make any progress in turning things around.

Toronto got two away goals and has the upper hand but the Red Bulls do have the potential to pull off the upset.  With Columbus up 4-1 on NYCFC, the second leg of that semi-final might be one to pass on; plus it's at Yankee Stadium, the finest U12 pitch in the country.  At 0-0, the Portland-Houston series has everything to play for. Portland's home goal differential was +20 while Houston's away deficit was -14, which does seem to favor the Timbers, although they are banged up a bit and could be missing some key players.  So I'll be clearing space on the DVR.

And this is after the regular Saturday schedule.  Refereeing in the morning so I'll be on DVR delay for Newcastle - Bournemouth at St. James Park at 11 am on NBCSN.  The Cherries are 19th in the table and have scored just six goals in 10 games.  At worst this should be a 0-0 draw, which is really unacceptable; failure to get all three here suggests maybe relegation is back in the conversation.

Other Saturday contests include Stoke - Leicester at 8:30 on NBCSN (meh), and West Ham hosting Liverpool at 1:30 on NBC (probably worth checking out).  If Bilic didn't get fired after the draw at Crystal Palace, it would seem harsh to sack him if West Ham don't get a result here.  But you never know.


Oh yeah, don't want Michael B on my case again.  Tottenham were absolutely awesome midweek as they thoroughly handled Real Madrid 3-1 at Wembley in Champions League action.  Spurs dominated and advance to the knockout stage. Truly a masterful performance.  I'm not kidding.  Kane was back in the lineup; though he did not score his work rate earned a throw-in that resulted in one goal and his pass to Eriksen set up another.