The First Thing People Do In This Situation Is Panic

Good, at least I'm doing things in the right order.  Another disastrous road match leaves Newcastle a slim two points above the relegation zone.

A Team From the Northeast Walks Into A London Stadium...

Wily Kayode - His long throw-ins created havoc
 and led to one of Brentford's goals

Wait, I know this one.  They take a 1-0 lead despite not playing well.  Then, the crappy performance catches up with them and the match is level.  Next, there's a self-inflicted wound; this time it was a Dan Burn foul in the box that resulted in his second yellow.  The PK is converted and Newcastle are down 2-1 and down a man.  The home side punches in a meaningless goal in stoppage time to make the final 3-1.  

This was actually much worse than the lose to West Ham.  The Magpies managed just four shots, with only one on target, and an xG of .42.  Guess this means we'll be hearing the phrase "too good to go down."

Now Do You Believe Us?

So after we kinda suggested Sunderland's fast start was in part based on a soft schedule, of course they go out and get a draw with league leader Arsenal.  The stats pile up in the Gunners' favor but the Black Cats did carry a 1-0 lead well into the second half.  Then, after falling behind 1-2, Sunderland rescued a point with a goal at 90+4.  Brian Brobbey's difficult volley with Gabriel pulling at his jersey is this week's YouTubeableMoment.  The point is enough to keep Sunderland in the top four another week.

Don't Look Now...

But Man City are gaining on you.  That was a pretty convincing 3-0 win by City over last year's champions Liverpool.  

This Isn't Supposed To Be the NBA

Spurs fans de ligted by Matthijs late header goal
Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs 

However, you could have saved yourself a boatload of time by waiting until about the 80 minute mark to tune into Spurs - Man United.  The visitors were up by a goal thanks to lackluster play from Spurs, though it wasn't like the Red Devils were world beaters either.  Pretty tepid stuff.  Fortunately, they made up for it with an awesome closing segment.  

First, Tel got the equalizer in the 84th minute.  This goal seemed to wake Spurs up and they took the
lead at 90+1 thanks to a Richarlison header (that was probably going in anyway).  Suddenly, all three points were Spurs' for the keeping.  Except Man United struck last with a header from Matthijs de Ligt in the closing seconds. A great 10-15 minutes for the neutral.

Putting the week's results together and looking at the standings heading into the international break, I see a table with five parts:

1) Arsenal with 26 points and a clear gap of four points at the top

2) The cluster of runners up:

Man City 22

Chelsea 20

Sunderland 19

3) The densest mid table I can remember in years with nine sides packed within three points:

Spurs 18

Aston Villa 18

Man United 18

Liverpool 18

Bournemouth 18

Crystal Palace 17

Brighton 16

Brentford 16

Everton 15

4) The relegation threatened group also packed within three points:

Newcastle 12

Fulham 11

Leeds 11

Burnley 10 

West Ham 10

Nottingham Forest 9

5) Wolves (2) seven points adrift of next to last place

A Busy Day for MLS

First we heard that Apple was scrapping MLS Season Pass and won't require a second subscription to see the games.  Details are here.  Surely, the incessant sniping on this blog about the service made the difference.  Maybe, but please don't call me Shirley.  The glass is one-quarter full side of me must point out that 1) we still won't have local broadcasts, 2) the quality of Apple broadcasts (camera work, commentary, graphics, etc.) aren't great and 3) they will probably still include the spoiler score when you try to watch a replay. 

Later, we found out that MLS is switching the schedule to align with the rest of the world.  As described here, the season will start in July, include a winter break (mid-December to mid-February?), then continue until April with playoffs in May.  Even with the winter break, this will probably be a net positive for MLS.

Just Like They Practiced

BFS Track and Field Consultant Jack W sends along this gem of free kick.  Right off the training ground no doubt.

Like We Said Last Week

Pressed for time so here's the scoop on the international break as we reported in the last edition of BFS:

They are down to serious stuff in UEFA WC qualifying with the final two matchdays of group play.  First place gets you in, second place gets you into a playoff for four more spots.  There are several 1-2 matchups.  We defiinitely recommend France - Ukraine on Thursday and Poland - Netherlands on Friday.  Which matchday 10 fixtures will be critical can change based on matchday 9 results.  Picking based on current standings, we go with Italy - Norway on Sunday, Germany - Slovakia on Monday and either Denmark - Scotland or Spain - Turkiye on Tuesday.  All matches are at 2:45.  Should be some good viewing.

The USMNT has two friendlies - Paraguay 5 pm on Saturday (11/15) and Uruguay on Tuesday (11/18) at 7 pm.  Paraguay are ranked just  39th but Uruguay are 15th, one spot ahead of the USA.  We'll be looking to see if they can build on positives from last international window - mostly a more connected style of play.

A little slower than recent weeks but plenty to do.

Then back to EPL and MLS playoffs.