Another emphatic victory for Eddie Howe’s Mags, as the Toon won with ease at a soaked St Mary’s.
Miguel Almiron (who else?) broke the deadlock before the break, with Chris Wood and Joe Willock both scoring their first goals of the season to make sure of all three points after a period of Southampton pressure.
The win sends us up to third – yes, THIRD – in the Premier League on a day where Manchester United lost at Aston Villa, taking us four clear of the Red Devils in fifth. With that in mind, Newcastle United WILL spend the World Cup break in the Champions League places.
One concern was Callum Wilson’s withdrawal at the break, with Miguel Almiron also limping off with what looked like a late muscle injury. It’s thought Wilson made way through illness, but a real shame for him to miss out on the goals as England boss Gareth Southgate watched on from the stands.
Howe made one change for this one, seeing Jacob Murphy return to the starting 11 in place of the suspended Joelinton and the fit-again Allan Saint-Maximin settle for a place on the bench alongside Jonjo Shelvey.
Southampton started with a decent intensity and didn’t really let us settle. Things weren’t quite clicking for us in the final third – we wasted chances from a few decent crossing opportunities, mistimed runs and missed a big chance through Longstaff – but began to finally assert our dominance just after the half hour mark.
Then, 10 minutes before the break, the inevitable happened. Miguel Almiron scored! After breaking past Wilson after some good work from Trippier and Longstaff, the Paraguayan sat down Ainsley Maitland-Niles and rolled a calm left-footed finish past Gavin Bazunu. Brilliant celebrations followed in the away end as the prolific South American reeled away in celebration. 1-0 Newcastle and SEVEN goal in six games for Miggy!
Moments later some good build up play resulted in a decent chance for Sean Longstaff, who headed over on the stretch from a Joe Willock cross. The latter is yet to score this season, but it was an all action first half from the former Arsenal midfielder.
For all of our good work after the half hour mark, we very nearly went in at 1-1. Stuart Armstrong found himself in acres of space down the right and whipped a ball to the back post. Mohamed Elyounoussi beat Trippier to it and looked destined to score, only to fire just wide of Pope’s far post. A huge let off, but another scare followed as Kieran Trippier went into the break holding his hamstring; a sight Gareth Southgate did not want to see as he watched from the stands at St Mary’s.
Thankfully, the England full-back was able to continue, but Callum Wilson was not. It wasn’t clear why our number nine was withdrawn – he had been suffering with illness through the week – but his afternoon was over as Chris Wood took his place up top.
A real shame to see him forced off, especially when we were likely to find more space in behind as Southampton pushed for an equaliser.
The home side made a fast start to the second half, seeing us survive a few mini scares as a Dan Burn block and strong claim from Nick Pope kept us ahead. We needed to get our foot on the ball and reassert out dominance, but had lost our grip of the game in midfield, also lacking that outlet in attack now Wilson was off.
Sven Botman had been mopping up potentially awkward situations with ease until he too let sloppiness sneak into his game, giving Southampton another half chance after giving away the ball in a bad area.
It was another big let off, but one we survived before a chance of our own fell at the other end – and Chris Wood did not disappoint! He needed to step up in Wilson’s absence and the Kiwi did exactly that, curling a right-footed effort into the far corner after some good work in the box from Murphy. 2-0 Newcastle and another would soon follow!
This time it was Trippier who turned provider, threading a brilliant ball in behind for the relentless Willock. He hadn’t scored all season before today but took his goal with ease, prodding past Bazunu while running at speed to make it 3-0.
Jonjo Shelvey then replaced Jacob Murphy – moving Willock out wide – and he too was then withdrawn with 20 minutes remaining, giving Allan Saint-Maximin another run out from the bench. Miguel Almiron pulled up with 78 on the clock, allowing Howe to make a double change. Elliot Anderson replaced Miggy and Trippier’s hamstring was protected, seeing the rarely-seen Javier Manquillo come on at right-back.
The Saints then grabbed a consolation in the 88th minute, as Perraud cut in from the left, took advantage of some sloppy defending from Manquillo and Anderson before firing into the top corner to ruin Pope’s clean sheet. However, it didn’t take us long to hit back, as Bruno Guimaraes curled in from range after a give and go with Saint-Maximin to make it 4-1!
Full time and a convincing 4-1 win for Eddie Howe’s Mags. It wasn’t always pretty, but emphatic finishing and another huge effort from all involved proved too much, with Sean Longstaff deserving a special mention for the enormous shift he put in at both ends.
Next up, Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday followed by Chelsea at home in our final match before the World Cup break!
STARTING XI: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Guimaraes, Longstaff, Willock, Almiron, Wilson, Murphy.
SUBS: Darlow, Lascelles, Shelvey, Saint-Maximin, Targett, Manquillo, Wood, Fraser, Anderson.
I forgot that Dier is the other England CB with Walker as sometimes a 3rd. He just handed Salah a goal. Along with McGuire, can we trust that defense. QFs at best probably even though Southgate has been lucky in the last 2 tournaments.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Looks like we got Hasslehuttl sacked.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Just an aside about the site, we aren’t allowed swear words and even my o m g is blanked out, and yet it’s ok to advertise ‘adult only’ humerous images sites with see through swim suits etc, several times amongst the write up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with seeing the sexy ads, but then why are our comments censored like kids? Perhaps time to remove the comments censor?
Gilly Toon(Quote)
On the match, great write up Olly and what a result again. So pleased for Wood and Willock getting goals. It’s strange getting disappointed at not getting the clean sheet when 3 up! We cannot now lose third spot before the WC.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Actually my last post wasn’t quite right, we could lose third but we will remain in the top four! 👌👌👌😳
Gilly Toon(Quote)
We really do have a shot at top 6. I have watched a few contenders this weekend. Spurs didnt even start playing until they were 2 nil down. There were some boos at the end of the game and I think Son is out for a while. It is as much Son that makes them tick as it is Kane.
Then there were Chelsea. I dont think they have picked up Potter’s methods yet. If ever there was a time to play them it is next weekend.
Finally, there is Man U. I watched the first 60 mins of that game and Villa were by far the better team. Emery only started on Tuesday so it was as much Man U being cr@p as Villa getting a bounce. The week before, West Ham were De Gea away from getting something. There is something wrong at Man U. And how the hell can Ten Hag make Ronaldo captain after he walked off the week before. McGuire was on the bench again.
I have said it before but I truly believe that Southgate sets up the team to protect McGuire. And Dier made a horrible mistake today costing Spurs the winning goal. You have to ask if Gareth’s luck had run out because England were bad in that Nations League. We have seen a clear example of this at NUFC where Bruce had all of the luck in the world and then he didnt.
I am not sure if we will learn anything from the group stage because we have the easiest group and we also had the easiest qualifiers.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Howe is a genius
Stuart79(Quote)
I am going to repeat what I said recently that we shouldnt get rid of Lascelles. We need 4 centre backs and he is good in the air at both ends of the pitch. Was he Bruced like so many others have turned out to have been. We havent seen enough of Lascelles under Eddie to know this.
What we do know is that the Bruce system of sitting back and inviting pressure was not good for Lascelles. Maybe with a bit more time on the ball and players ahead of him he may get back to the player he was for a while under Rafa. We know he not afraid to make a crunching tackle as well which may be useful if we play Everton and Anthony Gordon. Put that little shyte in his place. He was dropped yesterday BTW.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is interesting to see what Eddie has done with Miggy. Instead of running down blind alleys and towards the corner flag he is cutting inside and willing to take on a shot. It is like he has discovered his inner Arjen Robben.
Robben only had that 1 move but the PL and Bundesliga never figured it out.
It has taken Eddie a while to fix Miggy. Last year the defense was the priority in order to keep us up. Miggy was so obviously Bruced, because he was quite good in the few games under Rafa. The Cabbage had him playing defensive mid and then trying to beat 2 or 3 men to just get to the half way line.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
For any podcast fans – there one dropping at 4pm today
High Performance with Eddie Howe.
It’s our brother Jake – Jake Humphrey’s podcast and they are always very good whoever he has on – but I’m sure this one with wor Eddie will be well worth the watch.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Has everybody looked at the table? There is a 6 point difference between 11th club Brentford and bottom club Forest. This is going to get messy. I am just glad we are not a part of it.
You really only need a point per game to stay up and all of these clubs are very close to that. A couple of wins or losses and you can be mid-table or in the relegation zone.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
As for yesterdays game – it was a good result & good to stay on the winning train.
But I liked that Howe wasn’t completed happy with the performance – coz I agree that I thought it was a bit flat too.
It’s understandable really with the number of games so thick and fast & the intensity we’ve played – it’s bound to be in the players legs now.
What was excellent though is that when the chances fell, the boys put them away – all excellent finishes in their own way. All chances that you would see us waste not so long back.
Shame to concede a goal but in fairness to Saints it was an excellent move.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I watched the Chelsea game before ours yesterday and they moved the ball around well – like you’d expect from a Potter side. But they looked truly lost in the final third.
They have some good players, some very dangerous players – but we should not fear them.
Arsenal we’re not overwhelming yesterday. They played the high press & closed down with energy & intensity & didn’t give the Chelsea players any real time on the ball.
Sharpy17(Quote)
ERIC looks like your mate TRUMP is on the comeback trail
icedog(Quote)
If we beat Chelsea, and it’s very possible although to be fair a big ask it really sets us up for the second half of the season.
With the World cup effectively meaning a second preseason and time for players to return from injury we should have more or less a full squad to chose from. Krafth and Dummett probably the only absentees.
A couple of shrewd additions in January and we are in with a shout of top 4. I said in preseason that having averaged two points per game in 2022 last season there was no reason that we can’t do it this. High Standards but achievable.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem: it was pretty much only us two that believed. Just about every blog or youtube channel I looked at had us down for a year of consolidation and push for top 10-8. I thought that was setting a very low bar and that getting into Europe would actually help with FFP because it would allow bigger sponsorship deals.
We finished 11th last year so 10-8 would be failure in my opinion. I think I am right that at this time last year we had 7 points. I think Eddie picked up on 14 games which was 11 with Bruce and 3 with Jones. To this day, I still dont understand why Stavely and Co gave Bruce the Spurs game.
I keep going back and forth on whether we will spend in Jan. If we are top 3, I think we have to. If we get James Maddison then CL is a real possibility but will Leicester sell. Maybe get one of Bruno’s pals in the Brasil squad (not Fred 🙂 )
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Also Prem: I dont think we start either ASM or Murphy against Chelsea. We should play Willock on the left wing. My team would be:
Pope
Tripps Botman Schar Burn
Longstaff Bruno Joelinton
Miggy Wilson Willock
Eric Sykes(Quote)
For Palace, I dont think Darlow is ready. There is the Eddie dilema because he doesnt like to make wholesale changes. You want to see players get a runout but we only have one more game before the break. 5 changes?
Pope
Tripps Lascelles Botman Targett
Longstaff Shelvey Big Joe
Murphy Wood ASM
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The idea of Maddison and Bruno as AM appeals, but I think we need a wide man as well, because Miggy and Maxi cant play every game, and Murphy isn’t the answer.
PremAndUp(Quote)
I’d like to see young Anderson start for the cup game. I’d like to see him over a full 90 mins.
Is the palace cup game on TV?
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I was thinking about England and wondered what their chances are. Southgate thinks minimum of Semi-final. Is he delusional? Not the way he sets up. We have good individual players but unfortunately he plays a back 5 and only Tripps of the ones he picks is a good player now. I have said it before but the defense is set up to protect McGuire and then you have Rice as a shield. I think he will play a front 3 who are all good individual players but we will be relying on individual skill, a decisive moment, to nick a goal.
Would the following team scare Brasil or Argentina? France or Belgium? 4 of the back 5 are pretty cr@p or out of form and the ultra defensive strategy just yells out for McGuire to make a mistake.
This is the team I expect:
Pickford
Tripps Walker Stones McGuire Shaw
Rice Bellingham
Foden Kane Sterling
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I have been on a roll with teamsheets today 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
FSG set sale price of 4 Billion pounds. It shows you what a bargain NUFC was. As long as we can get into the CL soon we can get close to them in terms of commercial revenue. They have a much larger global fan base but we can grow ours when we get a better squad and into the CL.
I reckon they are overvaluing the Liverpool squad and we can catch up soon because we can spend the money. The Liverpool squad are getting old so they cannot maintain their value.
There’s not much difference in the stadiums and any redevelopment does not count against FFP. We could easily spend 200 million upgrading SJP to be the centrepiece of the Saudi football empire. You just have to look at what they are spending on the golf to see the possibilities.
If FSG can get anywhere near their Liverpool valuation then PIF spunking 100 million on players in Jan makes a lot of sense. There is not the London premium like for Chelsea but they do have a massive fanbase. The question is how to monetize this even more than now – a Super league has to be being built into the equation?
I was leaning towards us not spending big in Jan but this valuation has made me change my mind. I think we should go all out for CL football. James Maddison is the minimum we should get. What is his price? 60 mil? That might get us CL this year or next.
We are also just about to break our wage structure on Bruno so we could probably double Maddison’s pay.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Real Vallecano just handed Real Madrid their 1st loss of the season.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Just watched Eddie Howe on the high performance podcast on YouTube.
I’ve watched a lot of them before this one & think Jake & Damien are excellent!!. It’s right up my street things like that and I’m a big fan & believer in CBT.
But this one I could have watched all day!! – and not just coz it’s the Newcastle manager. Howe and how he’s developed himself is incredibly impressive – and it was interesting to hear that during his time at Burnley, which didn’t go well for him – it was a period when his mother was seriously ill and sadly passed away.
He doesn’t directly say that or address it in the chat – it was something I picked up & down deduced myself, but no wonder his time at Burnley went that way if that was what was going on in his personal life.
It’s a brilliant podcast & has only strengthened my respect & admiration for Howe.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: Eddie has mentioned his mother’s illness before as a reason he felt isolated in Burnley.
Seems like a great bloke. I have mentioned before on here that I went from thinking we were pretty much going down with Bruce. And then watched the Bournemouth documentary “Minus 17” which was how Howe saved them from going out of the football league when he was only 31. Then I got to 50/50 coz we had 7 points after 14 games. And Jason Tindall has been with him all the way from then to NUFC at 3rd in the PL.
I know you have watched the “Minus 17” film and every NUFC fan should. There is also a youtube video where Eddie and Callum are walking around the Bournemouth pitch together just shooting the ****. You should look that one up.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Also Sharpy: I think they also interviewed Steve Bruce, and he said:
Well, you know, I have managed 1000 games and have only been sacked 15 times. My win % is the worst in PL history but that is not the point. The point is the pay-off. I have bought a Mansion in Portugal next to Big Fat Sam and named it Casa SJP/PIF.
People have been talking about moving the workweek to 4 days. I am well ahead of the curve on that one. Me, the Steves, Alex and the players moved to 2 days a week years ago. Well you know, I am an innovator.
My remit at NUFC was always to stay in the PL by the skin of my teeth and sheer luck. I did that until the last season when I was about to plunge us into the Championship and maybe beyond (like at WBA). But all my pals including Alan Shearer never had a word said against me. STILL DONT. That must mean I am good, right.
Well, you know. I AM CONSIDERABLY RICHER than both youse interviewers so I must have been doing something right. What was that you said? Stealing a living…
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Linked again with Trossard.
Trossard, Diaby, Mudryk or Beharani I’m not fussed.
One in January and another in the Summer please. Any two of them together with Maxi and Miggy gives us plenty of competition for those places.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem: I dont know who Mudryk is, who does he play for?
I think Trossard would be backup.
Maddison would want to start, but where do we fit him in? It is a good problem to have and they are never ALL fit. We don’t really have a number 10 so if Eddie wants to change formations against certain teams or even during games, then Maddison would be useful. Maddison seems very versatile in where he can play.
If/when we get into Europe, having too many good players will take care of itself as the games will come thick and fast and we will be forced to rotate.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think i would use ASM sparingly this week. Maybe 30 mins in each game. Then, don’t we have like 6 weeks off? Get the lad fully fit. Real Vellecano are no mugs so that is a good friendly they have set up there. It seems we are no longer run by clowns.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Mudryk Shaktar Donesk
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mykhaylo-mudryk/profil/spieler/537860
Keeping our current formation the only place for Maddison would be alongside Bruno with both as AMs with a DM in support. So basically replacing Big Joe or Little Joe
PremAndUp(Quote)
I really want to see what ASM can do when the other team doesnt try to mark him out of the game with 3 men on him. If we have Wilson, Miggy, Isak and Maddison they have a lot more to think about. Is Maxi a luxury player, or can we fit him into a team where he would score 10 goals and have 10 assists if he stays fit? It is not out of the question!!! I think Miggy already has 8 goals.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think that Tripps being as intelligent as he is he is providing Miggy with exactly what he needs. Who can do the same for miggy.
I know Maddison operates out wide for Leics but that’s not his natural position he needs to be infield alongside Bruno. Personally I don’t think we need him January.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Sorry, who can do the same for Maxi
PremAndUp(Quote)
One thing I am particularly satisfied about this weekend is the Toon Review backtracking a bit on Wood. They have given him such stick in the last 6 weeks or so you would think he was a Sunderland player. We won 4-0 against Villa and all Paul on there could talk about for the 1st 10 mins of their match review was how Chris Wood should never play for NUFC again. He went on a rant against someone who questioned his judgement on that.
I reckon he got a lot pf pushback on places like twitter because he has partly changed his tune. I just dont think some people can see the wood for the trees (intentional). Chris was brought in for a specific job when it looked like Wilson might be out for the season and we were bottom of the league, so not looking that attractive to other players. We were not guaranteed to stay up either, so we had to have the Championship in mind.
I just cant stand some of these blowhards who do not see the big picture. This Paul person wants sympathy for his health issues all of the time and begs for money on his channel and then just goes off on Chris Wood if he even misdirects a throw-in. I stopped watching that youtube channel, but had a look after Wood scored.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I mean, you have to remember where we were at when Chris Wood came in. We were bottom of the league with our main striker injured probably until the end of the season. We had a team who had been Bruced and trained 2 days a week. Eddie was not the dead cert success that some fans see in hindsight. He had been out of football for a year doing some sort of Zen journey to see Barry Hearn and watch Athletico Madrid train. We didnt have a Director of Football – no Ashworth or Eales. It was all down to Eddie, Nickson and the new owners who with all due respect had no experience in the transfer market.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing for some people (Toon Review) and rants seem to get clicks/views and “donations”.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This is the only place I can express my views on this as I refuse to go on twitter. TR have a fan forum, but what is the point. They have 4 moderators all with exactly the same opinion so they would gang up on me. Their comment section is also limited to about 20 words.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
When Callum went down the prognosis was he might be out for the season. We didnt have another striker at the time and who wants to come to a team that is bottom of the league? There was nobody in the U21s, there still isnt. Our fitness levels were still not high after 2 and a half years of Bruce. We were still playing with 35% possession. We were not playing Eddie-Ball, that didnt happen until after the International Break and when were able to get some belief back in the team.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing for some on youtube!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
What I am saying is that having an endless negative diatribe about one of the lads does not sit well with me. I have been critical of Shelvey and Miggy but have explained the reasons – Shelvey was inconsistent and should never have been on set pieces and Miggy had 1 goal and no assists last year. I wouldn’t have been sad to see either go, but Eddie has worked miracles. I didnt talk about them every day though and didnt realise the extent to which they had been Bruced.
What I hate to see is constant criticism of our players. Now and again, point out some deficiencies but not constant abuse like Toon Review. I am OK with it for Managers because we have mostly hired dross and Bruce was the worst. Worse than Pards and Ugly John.
But players… I never liked fans getting on their backs, even as a 12 year old in the Leazes end where there was always some bloke hating, just hating, on one of our players, whether it be Pat Howard or Stuart Barrowclough.
Now you have youtube and twitter where it is relentless if they make a single mistake.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
BUT, BUT…now we are 3rd the haters are not hating as much – yes Toon Review, I mean you!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
My only concern with Trossard is that he’s similar to Miggy in a way.
Both have been excellent so far this season – but are they both just in a really rich vein of form?. Would we have been as keen on Trossard this time last year?.
I know Trossard has 7 in 13 games this season, but before this season kicked off he was 18 in 100 games – that’s very similar to Miggys stats actually.
Both are decent players – but I just wonder how true to form these last 13 games have been for both. We saw it with Willock through his loan period. Willock has been a decent signing – but he certainly hasn’t maintained that form – will Miggy or Trossard?.
I highlight it because you look at Maddison and his form has been maintained season after season.
I think he’s a player who is not only comfortable playing midfield or right forward – but is equally affective in any of those areas.
I have to be honest, I haven’t seen much of Diaby so can’t really comment on the lad.
But the fact Maddison is playing the PL now and already doing it – I also think he has the right character for our squad too.
Sharpy17(Quote)
We could get rid of Ritchie, Fraser and Murphy.
We could get Trossard for the left side with ASM.
We could get Maddison for the right right side with Miggy.
I also think Joelinton could provide that depth of cover for the left side and Isak could play right side forward if that extra cover was needed.
I’m not factoring in players like Anderson just yet but there may well be youth players coming through to offer further depth again.
Midfield wise we have Bruno, Joelinton, Willock, Longstaff & Shelvey – I’d be looking to add a quality youngster – actually I’d replace Shelvey as well but don’t think Howe will.
I think we need a quality youngster RB to work with and eventually take over from Tripz.
Sharpy17(Quote)
No mate it’s not.
kimtoon(Quote)
Cheers Kim! 😟. Illegal stream it is then!
Gilly Toon(Quote)