Not Every Day Is Christmas

The action was not as scintillating as last weekend.  Except for Arsenal- Man United, most of the matches seemed flat, especially in comparison to last week.  That may account for the high level of  snarkiness in this post.

Crystal Fall

Pope really should be the choice over Pickford now

Palace are tough at Selhurst Park so the 0-0 draw isn't a disaster.  It is, however, 90 more minutes of data that suggest Newcastle don't know how to finish.  On the screen it looked like the Magpies had the run of play.  The stats line up that way too - possession 61/39, shots 16/6, shots on target 7/1 and xG 1.95/.4.  And yet, without an incredible save from Nick Pope - this week's YouTubeableMoment - Newcastle would have come home with no points.  Of course, the good news is that Newcastle haven't surrendered a goal in league action since November 6th.  Yeah, the World Cup break makes that sound awesome; the real stat isn't bad either because they haven't allowed the opposition to score in six league matches, or over nine hours of game action.  

On a down note, Assistant Manager got a yellow card late in the match, I believe for delay of game related to a Palace throw-in.  For those keeping score at home, that would be Newcastle's third one of those this year.

"Mid-table" Sides With Finishing Problems

Of all the flat matches this weekend, the Chelsea-Liverpool 0-0 draw was the most disappointing.  This was not a good 0-0 draw.  This wasn't riveting football between two heavyweights, just the 9th and 10th place sides struggling to a scoreless draw.  Five total shots on target.  They offered nothing to make us think they could challenge for a Champions League spot.  Only halfway through the season so there is time to recover but not playing like that.  

Looking the results, the eight sides sitting 5th to 12th in the table managed all of four goals between them.  Spurs (5th) struggled but got one nice shot from Kane to nip Fulham (7th) 1-0.  Brighton (6th) did get two to draw with Leicester.  And Aston Villa (11th) got one to edge Southampton 1-0.  That would be goose eggs for Newcastle, Brentford, Liverpool, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.

Mind the Gap

Yikes

With Arsenal's win 3-2 over Man United (a worthy contest, best of the weekend) and Man City's 3-0 shearing of Wolves (which featured another Haaland hat trick), those two have effectively separated themselves from the rest of the field.  Newcastle and Man United are now six points behind second place City.  It's another three back to Tottenham.  Liverpool and Chelsea are 21 points behind Arsenal and 16 back of Man City.  One feels that, like a 10k race in which the two best have broken from the pack, they are likely not coming back.

Lampard Survives the Weekend

But not the week.  Everton were barely present in the first half against West Ham and were down 2-0 on merit.  They were better in the second half, at least putting up a fight, but 2-0 was the final.  Lampard was sacked on Wednesday.  Perhaps he will follow Steven Gerrard into a new career as a sports betting ambassador.

It's the Hope That Kills

Relegation candidates Bournemouth, Leicester and Southampton all looked to be close to grabbing some critical points but were all foiled by late goals.  Bournemouth were leading Nottingham Forest late but surrendered the equalizer in the 83rd minute; instead of finishing the weekend in 14th, they now sit 18th.  Leicester were looking at some breathing room but Brighton scored in the 88th minute so they are still stuck one point from the drop zone.  Southampton missed out on a chance to escape the basement when Ollie Watkins scored in the 77th minute to give Aston Villa a 1-0 win.  I know from experience that lost points like these are the reason you sweat out those final weeks in May.

Forest Look To Solid Wood For Survival

In a move that probably did not light up the newspaper wires, Newcastle's Chris Wood was picked up on loan for the rest of the season by Nottingham Forest.  The club is 14th in the table which doesn't sound too bad until you notice that they are just four points out of 18th and relegation.  They've scored just 16 goals all season, ahead of only Everton (15) and Wolves (12).  On the one hand, Wood never really put up the numbers that Newcastle had hoped for when they overpaid for him last year.  But he has a great work rate, wins a lot of aerial challenges and may offer some hold up play that will create chances for Lingard and others.  

We Carabao It Even More

Newcastle didn't exactly dominate in taking a 1-0 lead in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final with Southampton.  On TV they looked somewhat the better side but the stats are pretty even.  Partly because they continue to sky shots from impossibly close over the bar (looking at you Longstaff and Joe L Linton).  We remain optimistic that they will close this out at home on Tuesday.

Nottingham Forest played okay but Man United were simply better.  They'll take a 3-0 lead back to Old Trafford and look completely ready to make the final.

Hunt Lost on Jeopardy (apologies to "Weird Al" Yankovic)

Hunt congratulates Oswalt

Ted Lasso's assistant, Coach Beard, went deep on Celebrity Jeopardy.  He was looking good for a spot in the final as he carried a healthy lead over Michael Cera and Patton Oswalt into Final Jeopardy.  The category was Novels and the clue was: "Breeders, wives and unwomen" was the headline of the New York Times' 1986 review of this novel.  Only Oswalt came up with the correct response: What is the Handmaid's Tale?  Hunt's answer: What is heartburn?  He lost 10k while Oswalt gained 12.3k and it is Patton who will advance to the final.

Free Weekend

Also known as the FA Cup Round of 32, which rarely includes Newcastle.  This year is no exception.  But it's probably a good thing because they would have had to play this weekend, then have little turnaround for the Caraboa Cup semi on Tuesday.    

Action kicks off Friday with Man City hosting Arsenal.  So with 32 teams left in the tournament, we get the No. 1 seed playing the No. 2 seed.  At some point, this isn't quaint anymore.  Somewhat the same situation for Brighton-Liverpool (Sunday at 8:30); you can think of it as either the 5th seed playing the 7th seed or simply 6th in the EPL playing 9th.  

For the Saturday 10 am matches, I'll probably start with Sheffield Wednesday vs Fleetwood, two League One sides.  The FA Cup tends to mean more to the lower division clubs and a trip to the round of 16 would be a big deal for League One team.  Hoping that results in a good, hard-fought match.  My back up is Ipswich hosting Burnley.  At 1 pm you get Preston - Tottenham solo, followed by Man United hosting Reading at 3.

Sunday offers three more matches.  We already mentioned the Brighton - Liverpool fixture.  For some reason, they start Stoke City - Stevenage at 9.  The good news is that Wrexham fans can tune in at 11:30 to see the National League side face Sheffield United.  SHU are near the top of the Championship Division so we're looking at basically a difference of three full divisions between the sides.  But it will be fun to at least see how it goes.  

You can wrap up the round with Derby vs West Ham on Monday at 3 pm.

Since we have the Carabao Cup semis on Tuesday and Wednesday, it's another week with football everyday but Thursday.  Hurray for us.