No Newcastle Is Good Newcastle

COVID erased a second consecutive Newcastle match, which means the Magpies did not drop any points this weekend.  Some decent matches for the holiday weekend.

Two high level contests cemented Man City's position as the sole remaining member of A League of Their Own.  City managed a tight 2-1 win over Arsenal while Chelsea and Liverpool battled to a 2-2 draw.   City now has a 10 point lead at the top while Arsenal still trail Liverpool by seven.  These remain the two largest gaps in the EPL table.

Thirty+ minutes of defending a man down is undone
with Rodri's stoppage time goal (Photo: Getty)

Man City did not steam roller Arsenal.  In fact, they trailed the Gunners after Saka's goal at 31 minutes.  City leveled things when a possibly generous VAR awarded a PK on Xhaka at 57 minutes.  Two minutes later Arsenal went down a man after Gabriel got his second yellow.  For all their superior fire power and the man advantage, City didn't do much.  They had no shots on target until the PK.  They didn't put another one on goal until Rodri's game winner in the third minute of stoppage time.  It wasn't all that pretty a goal either.  I'm not saying they didn't deserve all three, but this was an underwhelming performance, especially with the man advantage.  Still, there they are with a 10 point lead.

Sunday's first half between Chelsea - Liverpool might have been the best 45 minutes of action this year.  Mane' got the Reds off to a good start when Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah didn't use his head by trying to use his head.  Say what?  You'll have to watch the video at the end of this paragraph to see what I mean.  Salah doubled the lead after taking a pass from Alexander-Arnold, freezing Alonso with a fake, and sneaking the shot past Mendy.  Kovacic got one back with a looping shot that also must be seen to be believed.  And right before half, Pulisic tied things up with a well-placed shot of this own.  The second half couldn't possibly live up to those 45 minutes but there was still some excitement, including a quality save from each keeper.  We'll make this two minute highlight reel this week's YouTubeableMoments.

Villa Fall Flat

And after a great start too.  Aston Villa got an early lead after Buendia made a beautiful spin move to send a through ball to Ings who slotted it past the Bees keeper.  You can see it here.  The Villans played well for a little while longer but then lost the plot, looking "shaky at the back" as Dennis put it.  Soon they paid for it when a nifty shot from Wissa found the back of the net.  The second half was back and forth but that Aston Villa were missing some key offensive players showed.  Mads Roerslev's (former FM Forest Green loanee for me) game winner for Brentford was not a total surprise, though Villa probably deserved a draw.  In a season where relegation is basically off the table and Europe a pipe dream, this was mostly just annoying.  As Dennis noted, this is the type of game they had been winning under Gerrard.  Let's see if it makes them more active in the January transfer window.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

Moutinho's late winner ruined Rangnick's perfect record

The Man United -Wolves match was a great watch for the neutral; actually probably just about everybody but Man United fans likely enjoyed it.  Good action throughout, even without any scoring.  DeGea had some great saves and Phil Jones, returning after an eternity (712 days) away from the game with injuries, cleared a certain goal off the line.  Bruno Fernandes had a shot rattle off the cross-bar.  A late goal from veteran Moutinho allowed Wolves to come away with all three points.

Then things got bad for Man United as "off-field" issues came to the fore, as detailed here. In truth, these aren't new and many have commented on them before.  Rangnick has his work cut out for him.

Help on the Relegation Front?

Norwich had their match postponed too so no movement there.  Burnley fell 1-3 to Leeds; I might have preferred a draw there but at least it wasn't three for the Clarets.  Tottenham took their sweet time in beating Watford.  Spurs did look decent on the pitch and dominated statistically but when 90 minutes rolled around, it was still 0-0.  Fortunately, Sanchez grabbed a game winner in the improbably late 96th minute.  Still goes on the books as three for Spurs and zero for Watford so that's fine.

Should we be including Everton in the relegation discussion?  Getting close.  The Toffees are eight points clear of the drop zone but have struggled after a quick start.  They lost to Brighton 2-3 over the weekend; I didn't see the match but on paper it looks like a draw would have been a fair result. Class, which are the only three teams with fewer losses than Brighton? 

Transfer Window Is Open

By the time you read this, Kieran Trippier will hopefully have been introduced as the newest Magpie.  I like this deal; price seems fair and he can help at the back.   Newcastle may or may not have made an offer for Everton's Lucas Digne.  He clearly wants to leave but it's not as clear that Newcastle is his preferred target.  Beyond that, still lots of names and stories.  When I see a player mentioned, I try to determine three things:

1) Is his current club willing to let him go

2) Has the player indicated he wants to leave his current team

3) Does the player want to come to Newcastle

Of course, we often can't tell the answers from the reports.  But in this media age, if you haven't seen reports that the club is trying to move a player, hard to put much stock in the stories.

FA Cup Weekend

This is the weekend when the Championship Division and Premier League teams enter the FA Cup.  For an explanation of that competition, check out this post from the BFS archives.  The quaint practice of not seeding the teams has once again created a wide range of match-ups such as:

Swindon - Man City

Chelsea - Chesterfield

Liverpool - Shrewsbury

Nottingham Forest - Arsenal

Man United - Aston Villa

One of these things is not like the others.  Newcastle got a favorable draw - Cambridge - but in the past that has not prevented the Magpies from making an early exit.  The action plays out Friday to Monday.  There may be a random match on regular ESPN but mostly you'll need ESPN+ to follow the competition.

For those who still Carabao the League Cup, Spurs are down 0-2 to Chelsea and the Arsenal - Liverpool match was postponed due to COVID.  The second leg of Tottenham - Chelsea is this Wednesday while Arsenal and Liverpool will try to get their first leg completed on Thursday.

Lastly, the matches postponed due to COVID are going to be slipped in as the schedule allows.  You know what this means?!  Mid-week EPL fixtures! Woo-woo. Next Tuesday has Southampton - Brentford and Everton - Leicester and Wednesday features West Ham - Norwich.  Well, I didn't say they'd all be great games.