A year and a day on from the Saudi takeover announcement, Newcastle United delivered a five-star display to send us into the top six, with some Bruno Guimaraes brilliance, another Miguel Almiron goal and a superb team performance – filled with several impressive displays – helping us earn back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
The victory sends us up to fifth in the Premier League on 14 points, turning as solid start into a brilliant one as Eddie Howe’s ever-improving Mags built on last weekend’s convincing win at Fulham.
He won’t make the headlines following a 5-1 win, but Sven Botman was a man mountain and a joy to watch all afternoon, reading the game superbly, stepping out from the back impressively and dealing with the physical Ivan Toney emphatically.
Along with Wor Flags – who put on another stunning display at the Gallowgate End – I thought Joe Willock was back to his best. He didn’t find the net like the equally lively Almiron, yet he carried the ball superbly and was a constant outlet.
It was actually an edgy start, as a few stray passes were followed by a Bryan Mbuemo goal that was later disallowed for a marginal offside, we kicked into gear and never looked back.
Bruno opened the scoring with a lovely header into the far corner after peeling off to the back post, although it was only made possible from a stunning Kieran Trippier cross that was whipped in with real pace and quality.
One soon became two as David Raya’s pass out from the back fell straight to Calum Wilson, who squared to Jacob Murphy; who couldn’t miss. We were smothering Brentford at this point, forcing them into long balls up to Ivan Toney and finding a way to get in behind their midfield at ease.
After going in 2-0 up at the break, Brentford made a better start to the second half and were soon back in it, with Ivan Toney scoring from the spot after Dan Burn was penalised for an unfortunate handball.
Any hope of a comeback was quickly put to bed, however, as Guimaraes fired a low shot into the bottom left corner from the edge of the box. Brilliant scenes followed, as “BRUNO” echoed around St James’ Park. The Brazilian – who was sporting his new bleach blonde hair – was back to his best and lapping it up, scoring his first two goals of the season.
Sadly, he was forced off moments later with what’s hoped is only cramp, but that didn’t stop us from scoring two more in the final 10 minutes as the likes of Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximin made an impact from the bench; which was refreshingly strong today.
Miguel Almiron then scored his third goal in the space of a week, capitalising on another awful pass out from the back by rounding Raya and slotting home to make it four, with our fifth coming from a vicious Joelinton cross that was turned into the Brentford net by Ethan Pinnock.
STARTING XI: Pope – Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn – Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock – Almiron, Wilson, Murphy.
SUBS: Karius, Lascelles, Joelinton, Saint-Maximin, Lewis, Targett, Wood, Fraser, Anderson.
Next up, Man Utd at Old Trafford a week tomorrow.
HWTL!
Cheesus. Brucie guides WBA to a nil-nil. That is now 1-8-4. So only 1 win out of 13. He has to get the sack, right? They were 5th when he arrived and are now 22nd. In a relegation place!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
But, I wont dwell. Because we were brilliant again. Man U should be afraid, very afraid! When is holloween? Later isnt it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eddie is now 3-5-1.
And it really should be 4-5-0. Palace and Liverpool were ref jokes!!!
It is not funny anymore Brucie. You, the Steves and Alex have to be sacked! You cant really take a good club like The Baggies into the 3rd division you fat fck.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
When you consider VAR has cost us around 4 points as well so far this season, we are definitely a proper team now!!.
I thought we’d win & said 2-1 so 5-1 is sensational really!!.
What is truly outstanding is how he has fringe players playing as well.
I was done with Almiron pre the break for the Queens funeral & already didn’t think players like Longstaff and Murphy had a future at NUFC.
Howe and his coaches have clearly worked hard with those players and Almiron in particular has looked a different player in the last 2 games – I do think Bruno brings the best out of him too mind.
That was bloody brilliant though 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Sharpy17(Quote)
Isnt it great to watch good football again Sharpy. Not since Bobby Robson and certainly not under Rafa. Even when we finished 5th under Pards, that was grind most weeks.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Lovely team performance today, all played their part, some awful defensive mistakes from Brentford to help but really we forced them into those errors. This is the Brentford that beat Man utd not so long ago too.
kimtoon(Quote)
beating London teams is always fun. So Back to back wins against, albeit lower profile, London teams andscoring nine goals in doing so has been a great week.
After some disappointing results nufc seem to be ticking along nicely and drawing some well deserved praise.
So pleased for almiron and hope he keeps it going at this level
So nufc are Looking good .. and let’s hope they hump manure next week
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
They were up 4 nil against Man U after 27 minutes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Let’s hope we repeat his against Manure next week. It’s been a long time coming! 😁
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Eric – it’s bloody brilliant mate!!.
My favourite goal yesterday – the first. Having banged on about making more from set piece opportunities, it was great to see that they have clearly worked on something different.
I don’t expect us to score from every one obviously but it was becoming a weak part of our play & better teams would have jumped on the predictability of them and turned it into a counter attack.
Great cross from Tripps & good composure from Bruno to direct it back to the far post – anywhere else and I think the keeper saves it.
Sharpy17(Quote)
So – having been so vocal about our Saudi owners, Gary Neville has now signed up to work for Quatar covering the WC – and declares he’s no hypocrite!!.
Maybe a mercenary then Gary?. A Charlatan perhaps?.
I wonder if he uses the opportunity to bring us his political points on their broadcasting channels – or if he’ll just save it for Sky?!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Optimism and belief coursing through Geordie veins again. It’s brilliant and scarcely believable after the Ashley years. So pleasurable! It’s hard to believe we have a player as good as Bruno.
georgio(Quote)
Hoping for a draw between Everton and Man U. I never really cared about Everton until their fans created some sort of fake rivalry with us and started slagging us off.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We are definitely doing something different on set pieces. Even a couple of weeks ago we would take the same corner every time. Our throw-ins used to drive me mad as well because we would take an age and then just throw it to the opposition. Yesterday we immediately restarted, not giving Brentford a chance to reset. The commentators in the US even mentioned it. There is a different culture at this club now.
(Should I burst into a rendition of Karma Cameleon?)
Eric Sykes(Quote)
What the hell has happened to Miggy as well? He looks a different player. He is even floating over to the left sometimes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Watching Leeds/Palace.
Wiif Zaha always looks like he is p!ssed off at the world.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is not just the high press with NUFC. It is the speed we move the ball now. They look like different players since Eddie and his coaches got stuck into them. Well, a lot of them ARE different players 🙂
Who is left from the Bruce era? Wilson, Miggy, ASM!!! Longstaff, who Bruce wouldnt play anyway. Lascelles and Dummett on the bench. Willock! Big Joe. There’s a fair few 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That goal gave Eddie Howe his biggest victory since replacing that bloke who is trying to get West Brom relegated – Newcastle scoring five times in the Premier League for the first time since the 5-1 home win over Spurs in May 2016.
From NUFC.com match report, that did make me laugh.
kimtoon(Quote)
As it stands, Liverpool are 10th. That’s a bit of a shocker.
They should also have 2 less points after the phantom 9 minutes allowed them to score against us.
Everton/Man U has to be a draw because I don’t want either of them to win 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t actually think McGuire is injured. I think Ten Hag has dropped him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If you look at that Liverpool forward line, there is no way they should be 10th – Salah, Jota, Diaz, Nunez, Ferminho,
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am not sure if I am scared of this Man U team, even though a 37 year-old Ronaldo just scored. Pickfoed should have stopped it and you have to remember they are playing Everton.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If anybody tells me that Anthony Gordon is worth 60 million quid I will sell them a timeshare in Peterboro for 5 mil.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sorry, if Anthony Gordon is worth 60 mil then I am a Greggs’ sausage roll.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And why do they have corner flags? It dosnt make sense to me. They used to have them on the half way line as well and they removed them.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy: McTom was on for like 5 seconds and picked up his yellow 🙂 Will not be able to play against us next week after 5 yellows. Pity, coz he is shyte.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – I hope you hoyed a fiver on him mate 😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
As far as I’m concerned it’s onward and upward for NUFC now.
But us fans took some stick for unrealistic expectations while fat lad owned us.
I honestly believe that if he hired Howe instead of washed up old Brucie boy, then we would have been so much better.
I’m not dismissing or overlooking the investment of our new owners & the impact the new players have made – not at all. But I think having them puts us in contention for those top 6 spots.
But look at the improvements of the players we already had – Krafth, Schar, Longstaff, Willock, Joelinton, Murphy, Almiron, even Fraser to a lesser extent.
IF Ashley showed a modicum of ambition & hired Howe, I think he could have certainly turned us into a Brighton, Leicester (pre this bad spell) type team & I think most fans would have happily settled for that.
In hindsight, I’m pleased he didn’t & we find ourselves where we do now. But all the pundits and journos who thought we demanded Ashley spend mega money – not true!!.
I don’t think there’s a single Newcastle fan that would disagree that Eddie Howe is the best piece of recruitment in the last year – not just within our club but arguably the league.
Sharpy17(Quote)
He didn’t get his yellow last week coz he was taken off at half time 🙂 So, you have him out. Rashford who is looking ever more ****. McGuire feigning injury. Fred who must be the worst Brazilian of all time and now Martial is out. Just need a training ground injury to Shaw and Ten Hag might stumble upon a decent team to play against us!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The swear blocker blocked cr@p. The most innocuous swear word in the history of swear words!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I really feel we can get a result at OT on Sunday. Not felt like that in many many years.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Who makes the programming decisions for sports shows? The BBC had Alex Bruce on one of their podcasts last week. I am hoping we have seen the last of his Dad but fear he will turn up at the cricket World Cup. Somebody might even make him a pundit for the football world cup. We might even see him shirtless again in the back pages of one of the tabloids.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There is a video on Youtube of Bruce confronting a Baggies fan last week. When you do that you are a dead man walking. The fan said to him “it is my club” he also said that there were kids around and he wasnt swearing or anything like that. Bruce was in his face though.
What it tells me is the absolutely abysmal job that pundits and journos alike have done with Steve Bruce for at least his time at NUFC and WBA. They never asked him any hard questions and just seemed to accept his BS and passing the blame. The one time he was asked a difficult question, when he went on holiday to Portugal, the journo was banned. It was Lee Ryder who is usually a patsy to NUFC owners and managers.
I dont care if the journos and pundits have to see Bruce on the after dinner circuit. They were not doing their jobs and gave him a free ride. This Baggies fan spoke for all of us and Brucie picked a fight with him.
The difference between Bruce and Eddie is night and day. Eddie is articulate, assured and will stand up for the team but also admit when he thinks we had an off day. Bruce just passed the blame and still did even to bitter end at WBA. And he is very bitter, whatever his pundit pals say.
On a more upbeat note, I thought Bruno’s interview was fantastic. It is obvious he is loving his time at NUFC.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is also pretty interesting that Bruno said Eddie has been working with him on headers. He has scored 2 brilliant headers. There was that diving winner at Leicester I think and he put the one away on Saturday in the only place the goalie couldnt reach it.
I think Eddie should now turn his attention to getting BDB to score a few with his head. I really like BDB but he never seems to jump in the opposition box.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
looks lik e facebook got it right on Bruce,and am i pleased,now one of the richest managers going,the man is unreal along with his son
icedog(Quote)
STAT ATTACK;
I was watching a NUFC podcast and they said we have had 70 corners this season. Next highest is Man City with 61. I actually think the quality of our delivery has been quite high but we havent finished them until the last 2 games. Tripps and Targett are much better than Shelvey and Longstaff at set pieces. Sean has played really well though this season so I am not slagging him off.
The usual % for goals from set pieces is 30% of total goals in a season. We should have had more and we are creating a lot of free kicks as well. I cant really count how many free kicks in dangerous positions we had against Bournemouth. I dont care what anybody else says, we should have won that game 3-1.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
About time we stuffed Manure, will honestly be very disappointed if we don’t beat them.
kimtoon(Quote)
Well half my day has been spent ringing pharmacies to try and get hold of Lews meds, this is happening all the time lately, very stressful situation.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eric – I feel like all I bang on about is corners, but your stat shows they should be a genuine source of goals, if not shots on target at the very least.
It was good to see a goal come from one at the weekend, but with so many big powerful players in the team, we should be get far more imo. When you consider the likes of Burn, Botman, Schar, Joelinton, Longstaff, Wilson/Wood/Isak – they are all big lads.
I agree Trips & Target can stick a decent ball into the box but too few result in headers that either make the keeper save or actually goes in.
It’s a good job I didn’t get started 😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim – what’s it down to do you think?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Can I just repeat – I HATE STEVE BRUCE!!!
I didnt much mind Ugly John. There were some qualities in McClaren you could like. Pards was annoying, I know, but he did have some success until he decided he was too cool for school.
I think Bruce is the Manager I disliked the most. Ashley actually tried in earlier years with Keegan and Shearer and sacking Big Fat Sam. Then he just gave up.
I think Bruce has the worst win % in the history of the PL apart from the short term fill-ins like Roy Keane 🙂 I think even Tim Sherwood has a better record. BFS does, and so does Super Frank. Gordon Strachen? Southgate?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Watching Forest v Villa and Lingard has gone from warming Man Utd’s bench to warming Forests.
When you think people were genuinely talking about him going to the WC if he left Man Utd for WHU or NUFC – what an expensive bullet that was to dodge!!.
Still he’ll have plenty time to make some pre Christmas TikTok videos so every cloud 🤷🏼♂️.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Not sure mate, pharmacist reckons it’s gotten bad since Brexit and covid. All the depots have a lot of drugs out of stock, just massive supply issues. I’m worried sick as Lews on 3 different epilepsy meds and you simply cannot just stop them dead or swap to another drug because you have to do slow withdrawal and gradual introduction of any new meds or risk going into status epilepticus which is a medical life threatening emergency.
I recently had to send 2 tins of thickener back to manufacturer for testing as I had been having issues with it not working properly in his drinks (was getting big lumps in it) it’s supposed to make drinks thick but no lumps, to make swallowing easier for Lewis.
Anyway, it had to go to Germany where it’s produced, after 4 weeks I asked rep what the hell was happening with the test. I was told it had only just left customs !!!!
Oven ready Boris but very very undercooked.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eric – you are completely entitled to hate Bruce mate.
For me though, I couldn’t give a **** about the bloke. I actually find it quite baffling to be honest.
The fella was a pretty decent CB from what I remember & continued his footballing career into management. I can’t say it’s a career I’ve followed particularly closely – but it’s not one I can remember a great deal of success from.
Ultimately though, he’s an employee. He’s someone that applies for a job – I assume is interviewed and then offered a contract to perform a role.
It seems to be one of the few jobs in life that you can fail one lucrative contract and not have to wait long for the next … but however offers that contract is the one I question!!.
I get him going for the Newcastle job. It was his boyhood club and all that – what would I do?! – what would any Newcastle fan do if offered the job?!. His hiring was on Ashley & Charnley.
My biggest issue during his time with us was having to listen to the likes of Gabby the daft ***** and his Talksport gobsh!te mates telling us fans that we were the problem. Telling us that Bruce was actually doing a good job – telling us we had a Championship team – and telling us we should be grateful for Ashley.
A great many fans were angry that Rafa left – I wasn’t one & I know Eric wasn’t either. But pundits jumped in to support Bruce saying he was in a hiding to nothing being the one to replace Rafa. To be fair, his first season WAS similar to Rafa – and despite it not being organised or pretty, it’s a results game & he got the results. To me though, that was more a show of how poor Rafa was rather than how good Bruce was!!.
But the whole Rafa thing was just one big distraction on how poor Bruce was. Every post match interview was him agreeing with the interviewer how poor we’d been that day – yet not one of them challenged him on HIS part of how poor we were!!.
When he was eventually moved on, I honestly didn’t give the guy a second thought.
Ashley ultimately let NUFC down and as I said earlier. He himself could have signed Howe but instead opted for Bruce – says it all really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim – I think it’s all down to Brexit & the change in process and procedures with everything. My grandparents are struggling with their meds too & the missus with her thyroid meds. It’s a massive oversight really and with all the other nonsense going on in that political party, getting stuff like this sorted is likely way down the list of priorities unfortunately.
Covid and the impact of that will be high up the list – but at the moment they are more occupied with sorting in house fighting & u-turns than actually address the aftermath of both Covid & Brexit.
Hope things become more straightforward for you soon 🤞🏼.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: I will probably shut up about Bruce now. What really annoyed me was not just his ineptitude but his pundit pals standing up for him and saying he was a “good guy” when he clearly wasnt, throwing fans and players alike under the bus as he squirmed to pass the buck. His confrontation with the Baggies fan was the last straw for me and shows what an utter tw@t he is.
They, the pundits and journos, really thought we NUFC and Baggies fans (and even Mackems and Villa) were the bad guys in this drama as the fat fraud did all he could to deflect blame from himself.
Let’s see if any of the other Steves get hired by anyone other than Morcombe or Pelaw Town?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
For some dumb reason I have been thinking of Alan Wicker and Jeremy (donkey face) Clarkson tonight. Harry Enfield once did a take off on the Monty Python skit of Wicker Island where they all went around an island impersonating Alan Wicker.
There was a show over here that did a “Wicker’s World” type thing. It was called Life Styles of the Rich and Famous and was presented by an Alan Wicker wannabe. I think his introduction was Hollywood Dreams and Golden Showers! I am not sure if he knew what a golden shower is? Should have asked Donald Trump.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – you go to town on the guy mate, I’m certainly not saying you’re wrong to.
The thing is, he might be a good guy & a good dad – I’m sure he is actually. Good guys can react to situations badly at times too & he’s definitely old school, brought up the Alex Ferguson way.
I didn’t mind his mates saying he was a good guy & I certainly didn’t mind Alex leaping to his dads defence – I respect it actually.
But what they failed to grasp is that you can be a good guy & still be a **** manager 🤷🏼♂️ – that’s what the fans were accusing him of & ALL the stats backed it up!!.
Weirdly Simon Jordan said his record at WBA would be enough to get him the sack – yet at Newcastle it was ‘he’s a good bloke & the fans just don’t like him coz he’s not Rafa’ (another manager he doesn’t seem to like).
I don’t think any Newcastle fan cared less what he was like as a bloke – we’ve had Pardew & Ugly John who I found pretty arrogant & difficult to like.
I don’t know Bruce well enjoy to know if he’s a good guy or not. But his stats as a football manager are enough to say he’s not very good at it & if I were his son or a family member I’d be encouraging him get out of the game now & enjoy the rest of his life.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I watched Villa last night and they are awful.
Gerrard has been backed there & has some good players but each time I’ve watched them so far this season I’ve been less impressed.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim – it’s Brexit all the way. My family have had similar issues. Brexit was an absolutely rubbish idea as we’re all coming slowly to understand. Farage and Boris – top class team.
georgio(Quote)
Georgio, agree, it’s defo brexit at fault for the lack of meds, be it stuck in customs or this country no longer having the ability to broker deals for drugs. Interestingly pre Brexit the government stockpiled vital drugs, this is a pretty well known fact now, what we are seeing now is those stockpiles diminishing and running out in some cases and it’s the toss of a coin as to whether we can get them anymore.
Plenty of folk said this would happen and guess what.
Still it’s no help to me and others on here who are in desperate need of often life saving drugs. Have Brexit by all means but my lad is suffering because of something I never voted for and it’s not fair.
This government has caused so much harm I don’t know where to start.
kimtoon(Quote)
I dont know if I am a biased NUFC fan or just paranoid. But these pundits are not saying a d!ckiebird about Bruce at WBA. He left them in an arguably worse position than us. They are 3rd bottom of The Championship and we were 2nd bottom of the PL. But at least we were in the PL and facing Man City and Liverpool and not Preston and Luton!!! They even said he DESERVED more time, to be given a chance under the new owners to see what he could do with the new found wealth. He had spent 150 mil under the Fat Man!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
How could anybody even look at Boris and Farage and think they knew what they were doing?They just LOOKED like idiots and then they opened their mouths and confirmed it. And they lied!!! That bus with the savings on it was a complete lie. WTT – Worse Than Trump and that is saying something. There is a fact check website over here that explains he has LIED 40,000 times in the last 5 years. Not expanding on the truth, bare faced lies!
I am guessing Boris and Farage are close to that as well.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckG4tpikBNg
just for you Eric
kimtoon(Quote)
Kimtoon. So sorry to hear about your boy. As I have said before, I had experience with epilepsy and grand mal seizures with an ex-GF. Even the experts have trouble getting the right mix of meds. It is such a complicated illness and if one of the meds is not available you are in trouble.
You have my heartfelt concern because I know how difficult that illness can be.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t envy Olly trying to predict this weekend’s team unless he just goes with unchanged. How do you alter a team that has shown so much energy in 4-1 and 5-1 wins? BUT… How do you sit ASM when he would be going against Man U’s cr@p fullbacks? Targett has done nothing wrong and Big Joe was our player of the year.
There’s the argument that goes “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but there is no doubt that ASM is better than Murphy, Targett is a better left back than Burn and Big Joe would boss the Man U midfield.
C’mon Olly, tell me your team. I am lost on this one.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
BTW, I think BDB is a better centre back than Schar and should start there.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
As for Man U? They have some issues. We can get at their full backs. Casimiro is a guaranteed starter. I know very little about Antony. Is Martial injured? What about Rashford? He seems to have regressed and Ronaldo and Bruno Fernando seem to take up the same space.
They beat league leaders @rsenal though but weren’t that convincing against Everton. The one thing they have going for them is McTom is suspended.
Brentford were 4 nil up in 27 minutes against them.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I can’t predict this one. The commentators will roll out all of the stats which include stuff like we have won only once at Old Trafford in the PL era or that since 1905 we have only won twice (I made that one up, but it sounds about right). Man U have also won 4 of their last 5 PL games.
I haven’t got a clue. Over to you Olly 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This is what I want to happen:
I have “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed cued up on my Youtube. I want to see a zoom call of Kevin Keegan beaming on his couch and Lord Ferg in the stands with that scowl that he gets now. Above all else I want to see Roy Keane suffer.
That’s what I want, but I have no clue about what will actually happen.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
queued up 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, thank you for the kind thoughts. Managed to speak to gp pharmacist who helped me track some down for now.
Re Manure, I would take any win, even a lucky one, especially a lucky one that will irk them more. 🙂
kimtoon(Quote)
so ASHWORTH says we will sell star players to balance the book at some point wtf ??????
icedog(Quote)
KIM you have a tough job mate,all power to you and Lewis
icedog(Quote)
Ice – I wouldn’t read too much into that mate, and I understand his point.
We sold Andy Cole to bring Shearer in. Man City sold Jesus & Sterling to bring Harland in 🤷🏼♂️
Sharpy17(Quote)
Tell you what though – blow away with the level of communication coming out of the club!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Is our match with manure on TV? Or is it a stream again?
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Cr@p: I was going to go to the pub at 8 am but then checked out the schedule. There are 3 other games on at the same time so it would be super busy. Chelsea and Arsenal have a lot of fans and they play at the same time.
Worst of all, the Red-Bindippers play Man City after us and have the most annoying fans ever. They keep coming up and asking if we are done with the table like we wouldnt want to stay and watch another match. There’s the newbie City fans as well 🙂
I had fancied meeting Chicago NUFC fans for this game but I think I will have a much better time just watching it on my couch.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Whatever happens it’s really nice to go to OT without trepidation or fear of a hammering. We’re as good as them! HTL
georgio(Quote)
I am still struggling with this Man U side. They played a Cyprus team I had never heard of and only won 1-0 with a goal in the 93rd minute. A Fergie team would have brushed them aside. And Man U played an almost full strength side. I think they want to win the Europa League because they see it as the easiest path to the CL. There are at least 4 better teams than them in the PL – City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Probably Spurs as well. They have a real scrap for the 4th CL spot and are forced to take the Europa very seriously.
Then you have the Thurs-Sun scheduling. When Pards said it was difficult all those years ago I thought it was BS because I would automatically think he was making excuses. But West Ham and others have found it tough and their squad was Knackered towards the end of last year. I have changed my mind and now think Pards was right. Hopefully, this will help us on Sunday.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am still not sure what Man U will turn up. Here are some recent PL results:
Everton 1 MU 2
City 6 MU 3 (probably should have been 10-1)
MU 3 Arsenal 1
Leicester 0 MU 1
S’ton 0 MU 1
MU 2 Liverpool 1
Brentford 4 MU 0
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Looks like it is just me 🙂 Last week’s team against Everton was:
De Gea
Dalot
Lindelof
Martinez
Shaw
Casemiro
Eriksen
Antony
Fernandes
Rashford
Martial
Am I scared of this team? The defense looks very weak and if McGuire comes back that makes it even worse.
I think their midfield is pretty good.
Attack? Is anybody really that worried about Rashford and Martial who is touch and go anyway. I still worry about Ronaldo even though he is 37.
I would say that the Moyes team is the only one that is worse than this lot in the PL era.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
As for Everton who we play on Wed. There really is something dodgy going on there. Their auditors who signed off on a 170 mil FFP loss are threatening to resign. Usmanov a Russian Oligarch provided much of the funding and I dont see how that is any different to Chelsea where Abramovich was basically kicked out of the country. And I dont know how the new stadium makes any sense for a mid-table at best team.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Everton fans will always preach they are a big club but I can name a few that got into trouble. We have spent 15 years in the wilderness with some of the worst managers I have ever seen in the PL. Didnt it take Leeds and Forest like 20 years to get back to the PL? And the Mackems…
As I said, there is something rotten on the blue side of Merseyside and it wouldnt take much for their house of cards to collapse.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – I think Man Utd in the peak Fergie years had a confidence or rather arrogance that they were better than everyone & between Fergie & players like Cantona & Keane they convinced other teams of it before a ball was kicked.
Then came Wenger who was ready to test that & after him the likes of Jose – and Man Utd became to gradually slip.
Then when Fergie left the arrogance left with him & they were fragile all of a sudden – and City & Liverpool stepped up.
But during that Man Utd fall, we had managers who still believed that hype & didn’t think our players were good enough to go toe to toe with them. They were more fearful of the famous Man Utd counter attack that no longer existed than they were taking them on.
Eddie Howe has us playing a very different way. The City game was prime example of that. One of the best teams in the world let alone the league & we more than held our own. We won’t win every game, but we will give every team a bloody good game – and Man Utd will be no different.
If we get the first & our confidence is there, I think we could comfortably beat them – but it will still be a tough away game.
Sharpy17(Quote)