Don't Look Back - Something Might Be Gaining On You

HOF pitcher Satchel Paige's admonition certainly applies to Newcastle.  Four of the five teams behind them picked up points while the Magpies were losing 1-3 to Manchester City.  Aguero got a hat trick and scored something like his 57th goal vs the Magpies (actual number is 14 goals in 12 games - just feels like more).  Jacob Murphy got a decent tally that briefly threatened to make it a contest but the Citizens are just in another league from the Magpies.

Jacob Murphy scores Newcastle's lone goal vs Man City

The Newcastle result was hardly unexpected and not even that awful a match.  But some of the other scores were a surprise.  West Brom getting a draw with Everton at Goodison Park?  Southampton taking a point from Spurs?  And Swansea beating Liverpool?  Not helpful.  I guess Stoke 2-0 over Huddersfield isn't completely out of left field.  Only Brighton, 0-4 losers to Chelsea failed to gain ground on Newcastle.


Buzz Kill

Graham, Michael B and I went to the Philadelphia Racquet Club Saturday morning for a Starfinder fund raiser for youth soccer.   After finishing a robust English breakfast we settled in for the Arsenal - Crystal Palace match; we were even properly decked out with Crystal Palace gear collected on our 2016 trip.  So Arsenal score at 6, 10, 13 and 22 minutes, making a mockery of the match.  Way to take the fun out of the event, Gunners.  Union center back Jack Elliott's half-time analysis focused more on Crystal Palace shortcomings than Arsenal prowess.  By unanimous vote, we opted to switch to Burnley-Manchester United (a tight 1-0 win for the Red Devils) for the second half.  At least we got a good breakfast and helped out a good cause.


We Are All Relegation Candidates Now

Or just about. Three points separate 15th through 20th.  There's just six points between 10th and 20th.  And with Everton back in a slump (9th but just six points above the drop zone), 538 Soccer now has them with a measurable relegation chance too.  So we have mid-table consisting of Leicester and Burnley at 34 points.  Even 2nd through 6th isn't all that tight.  Arsenal are five points out of 4th, and 11 points behind second place Man United.  There will likely be some interesting jockeying for the last three Champions League positions but clearly the more "competitive" race is the one to stay up.


Raving Lunatics 

Noted manager Ted Lasso, seeking American comparables for English teams heard that Newcastle fans were "raving lunatics."  This led him to associate Newcastle with the Philadelphia Eagles.  The similarities maybe be stronger - and scarier - than he realized.  A few years ago, a Newcastle fan was arrested for punching a horse after the Magpies lost 0-3 to bitter rivals Sunderland.  Sunday an Eagles fan was arrested for punching a horse.  However, this was three hours before the game and was the second incident of horse punching this playoff season.  And the Eagles won these games.   As far as I can tell, the horses were not hurt in these incidents.  Raving lunatics indeed.


Funky Blues

Inconsistent efforts from Chester recently.  A 6-1 pasting of Stoke followed by a 1-1 draw to Leeds.  Then a horrendous 1-4 performance against Chelsea in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final which crashed us out of that competition on a 4-7 aggregate score; the fans were not pleased but fortunately the League Cup was low on the board's priority list. We have rebounded a bit with consecutive 5-0 wins - albeit against weaker sides - and some tactical tweaks seemed to be making a difference; we've gone to a slightly more attacking formation and some more careful individual instructions have cut down on the fouls.  Hopefully we have fixed things in advance of matches with Liverpool and Man United.  Dennis notes that the real Chester are in danger of dropping to the sixth tier of English football; that's what you get for going with an experienced manager over a Football Manager manager.


If You Still Care

Arsenal (2-1 over Chelsea) and Man City (5-3 over Bristol City) were winners in the Carabao League Cup semi-finals.  They will meet on February 25th in the final.  Mark your calendars accordingly.



Glacial Transfer Action Tyneside

The Alexis Sanchez move to Man United was completed, with Henrkh Mkhitaryan going from the Red Devils to Arsenal.  The Gunners are said to be close to bringing on Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. You can see a list of completed deals here.  No that's not a typo, Newcastle actually did make a move.  And no, that's not a typo either; his name is indeed spelled Kenedy.  As I said before, more than simply rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as he will add speed and flexibility to the squad.  But it doesn't seem like enough given Newcastle's situation.  Other names are regularly bandied about but Newcastle never seem to be willing to meet the asking price. 


More FA Cup and Mid-week Matches

The weekend is given over to 4th Round FA Cup matches.  Once again, the charm of the no seeding policy has resulted in pairings that differ vastly in their degree of difficulty.  If you rank the sides from 1 to 32 based on their current standings you can see some of the wild spreads.  The toughest match up is Chelsea -Newcastle, which is 3 vs 10; you can see that one Sunday at 8:30 on FS1.  Another difficult one - based on these numbers anyway - is Cardiff hosting Man City; this is 1 vs 15, which is on FS2 Sunday at 11.  So Man City sort of got screwed here but hard to imagine it will matter.  Third toughest using this approach is Liverpool -West Brom at 4 vs 13; this will be on FS2 at 2:45 Saturday.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is MK Dons hosting Coventry or 27 vs 30; no coverage for that one.  Other softies include Millwall - Rochdale, which is 20 vs 28 and no TV coverage and Notting County hosting Swansea or 29 vs 14 - no coverage there either.  The other TV games include:

Yeovil - Man United (2:55 on Friday FS1)  this is 32 vs 2
Peterborough - Leicester (7:30 on Saturday FS1) this is 26 vs 6
Wigan - West Ham  (10am Saturday on FS2) this is 25 vs 8
Newport County - Spurs (12:30 on Saturday FS1) this is 31 vs 5

Actually those four matches look about right from a seeding perspective.  I have my annual referee recertification clinic on Saturday so I'll be playing catch up all weekend.

As I noted last week, everybody in the EPL gets a midweek match on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Not a scintillating slate but there is Tottenham - Man United at Wembley on Wednesday at 3 pm (NBCSN).  Tuesday's TV match is Huddersfield - Liverpool at 3 pm (also NBCSN).  Newcastle have Burnley at home, which I'd like to think might get us a point but not optimistic. Some "six point" matches for the relegation candidates include West Ham - Crystal Palace, Southampton-Brighton and Stoke - Watford.

With the midweek games, pay attention to the squads that managers field for the weekend FA Cup matches.  I'll be interested to see what Rafa does with Newcastle; I would expect he'd field a team with an eye towards getting a result on Wednesday against Burnley as opposed to pulling off an upset against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.  And what of the other clubs in the relegation fight like West Ham who must turn around and face Crystal Palace on Tuesday?  Coming at it from the other direction, do Swansea go for the FA Cup win against lowly Notting County, knowing that they face a tough match against Arsenal on Tuesday?  Like I said, check out the line ups to see where the FA Cup fits in a team's priorities.


Wow, Union scheduled to open in just over 5 weeks.  Distressingly quiet on the roster change side, other than adding David Accam.  I do like this quote from mlssoccer though:

 A quick forward capable of wreaking havoc from wide positions

That's encouraging.  But like with Newcastle, I think more needs to be done.  Getting late for both.