Six home wins in a row for the first time since Sir Bobby was in charge! The first without Shearer since 1934!
What an unbelievable turnaround this season has been, with the Magpies now sitting 11th and closer to the European places than the relegation zone as of Thursday morning!
Another fantastic result to make it nine wins in 13 Premier League games. Here come the ratings from a brilliant night on Tyneside:
Martin Dubravka – 6 – Hard to give more than a six when he had so little to do! Only had two saves to make and both were straight at him. Looks confident and assured, but says a lot about our defence that he’s barely being tested.
Emil Krafth – 8 – Another top performance from the Swede. Barely gave Zaha a sniff down Palace’s left, often getting the better of the tricky Ivorian who just couldn’t shake him off all night. Has filled in fantastically in Kieran Trippier’s absence. Gave away plenty fouls but that only added to Palace’s frustration, also firing in a few dangerous low crosses at the other end!
Fabian Schar – 7 – A solid display from the Swiss centre back. Stayed switched on in a tough second half and compliments Burn so well, although his passing radar was a little off again here. Did make one error in the first half that Palace failed to punish on the break, but he didn’t let us down in the end!
Dan Burn – 7 – The big man from Blyth won everything in the air as always and kept it tidy in possession. Wasn’t really tested by Edouard or Mateta but he continues to look a brilliant piece of business.
Matt Targett – 8 – Playing out of his skin at present and always looks so dependable. Not getting forward as much as he’d like, but didn’t give Olise or Ayew a sniff and used the ball well. Only Bruno had more touches and he could’ve bagged an assist on another night, with his dangerous set piece delivery being headed over by Joelinton. Sign him up!
Jonjo Shelvey – 7 – Struggled to use his well known passing range to good effect at times, however his pressing, discipline and shielding the back four was that of a player who looks fit, motivated and much better for Howe’s arrival!
Joelinton – 6.5 – Lucky to get away with a sloppy bit of play midway through the first half when his careless pass allowed Edouard to hit it straight at Dubravka. On the other hand, he battled well all evening, didn’t give Gallagher time on the ball and used his physicality well to disrupt their attempts to play through us.
Bruno Guimareas – 8.5* – There was a few rock solid display last night, but this bloke looked head and shoulders above the rest once again! Was so tenacious off the ball and seemed to cover every blade of grass, but also played a quality pass out to Almiron to help set up our goal and won us several fouls in the second half to see the game out. Displayed moments of genius to keep possession throughout the game and offered that rare mix of steely determination and Brazilian flare in the middle of the park. What a player.
Miguel Almiron – 8 – The Paraguayan really is taking his chance in the side, scoring an absolutely fantastic solo goal. The celebrations showed how much this means to him and he followed that up with an energetic display at both ends of the field. Pressed well, had the beating of Mitchell and ran himself into the ground as always.
Allan Saint-Maximin – 6.5 – Was expecting a masterclass after the pre-match display in the Gallowgate. The great work from Wor Flags clearly gave him a lift, as he was lively in patches early on and chipped in defensively which was great to see. However, his final product was lacking – even if his decision making leading up to the final third was slightly better here.
Chris Wood – 6 – I feel like I’m repeating myself now. He does the dirty work well and puts in a real shift for the side, but he often looked isolated, had a few loose touches and didn’t make the most of the one opportunity that fell his way in the first half. That said, he did win a fantastic header late on to deny Palace a clear cut chance.
SUBS:
Jacob Murphy – N/A – Never really got forward, but helped us get over the line after replacing a worn out Almiron.
Joe Willock – N/A – See above. Plenty energy and discipline, however he didn’t enjoy any bursts into the final third like we saw from him on Sunday!
Sean Longstaff – N/A – Came on for last 30 seconds to run the clock down.
Up the mags ⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️
Matty(Quote)
Ollie – great team performance and a fantastic win well deserved but you failed to comment (again) on how wasteful Maxi is.
In the first few minutes he got the ball going forward, took on more than he could handle, headed back towards the goal and then played a 25 yard pass to a Palace player.
Freddd(Quote)
Check out his goal involvement stats sometime.
PremAndUp(Quote)
As good as Almiron’s goal was last night, we have nobody bar possibly Wilson in the forward line who can finish off moves like that on a consistent basis, Salah, Mane score goals like this regularly they don’t even blink and their movement is terrific.
Joelinton missed header was abysmal, Andy Cole 99% of the time hit the target forcing the keeper to at least make a save, to move to the next level we require some clinical finishers and they won’t come cheap.
You can’t knock anyone for lack of effort but the forwards generally lack quality and wet their pants when a goal scoring opportunity arrives, the stats say it all.
Joseph(Quote)
ASM is always trying to get the ball beat everyone and score himself. Why can’t he beat 1 man then cross for Wood. We are getting no service into Wood from wide. He is feeding on scraps.
ASM also has very little movement off the ball. He will stand until the ball comes to him then try and beat players. The one time he made a run off the ball against Leicester he was free but still had no end product.
Shouldn’t complain as we are winning but if seams simple to be more effective,
TM78(Quote)