An opportunity missed from Newcastle United on Saturday night, as plenty of flowing football was followed by too much tame finishing in a 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park.
We dominated the game throughout and will be frustrated we couldn’t convert a series of half chances, but there’s still plenty of positives to take back to Tyneside.
Six successive league clean sheets – Nick Pope hasn’t concede for almost 14 hours – eight away games unbeaten, plenty of good football and a result that means Eddie Howe has become the first English manager this century to go unbeaten in 15 Premier League games.
It’s a shame we couldn’t move eight points clear of fifth, with this result leaving us six ahead of Spurs in fifth, but we’re up to third and go into next week’s Carabao Cup semi-final in good shape.
Who knows, our issues in the final third may give us that push to bring in the necessary quality over the final 10 days of the January transfer window, as three of our last four Premier League games have now ended 0-0.
Bruno Guimaraes was somehow fit enough to start – and incredible recovery given he hobbled off in tears just six days ago – meaning it was an unchanged side, featuring Joelinton on the left and Callum Wilson up top, leaving Allan Saint-Maximin an Alexander Isak on the bench once again.
We made a confident start. Joe Willock was getting joy down the left, creating our first chance after a lovely give and go between him and Bruno led to a back post shot Miguel Almiron shinned wide.
More flowing football followed and Dan Burn was the next to go close, smashing a perfectly timed effort on target from the edge of the box after some good work between Longstaff, Almiron and Trippier down the right.
We were a joy to watch at times in the first half. Schar and Botman showed their class to sweep up effortlessly, Longstaff and Bruno were keeping the ball moving brilliantly, a lively Willock was offering a constant outlet down the left and Almiron looking dangerous on the opposite flank, forcing a few corners as he threatened to get in behind. That said, I did feel Wilson looked slightly sluggish and well below his best.
We were dominating possession, showing lots of great movement, looked confident on the ball and full of ideas, but needed to make the most of that with a sprinkle of quality that had been lacking in the final third.
On the half hour mark we’d had 63% possession and hadn’t conceded a single shot to the home side. Nick Pope was a spectator once again and the big man would’ve been wondering how we didn’t make the most of our first half dominance when Joelinton saw a close range effort stopped on the line by Guaita.
We did survive two late scares in first-half stoppage time, however. Zaha got in behind from a simple ball over the top, sneaking in between Trippier and Schar, but the former recovered well to force a corner that was then headed over from Richards; who should’ve done better after rising highest from six yards out.
No changes at the break and a similar pattern of play followed. After some good work from Joelinton helped force a corner, Almiron went short and Trippier’s inviting cross found Wilson, only for our number nine to fire a tame free header straight at Guaita.
Our reliable right-back went into the book moments later for pulling back Zaha, yet the tricky winger went down with a hamstring injury seconds after. He came back onto the field but wasn’t moving freely, allowing us to have some joy down Palace’s right. One of those was from a corner, as Botman headed Trippier’s teasing delivery wide. Another half chance missed with 30 minutes remaining.
A triple sub followed from Palace, where Zaha and Eze both came off, and Howe responded with two changes of his own, seeing Saint-Maximin and Isak replace Wilson and Willock. The latter got plenty of joy via driving runs down the left, but it just didn’t quite come off for him in the final third.
With 73 minutes on the clock, we had Pope to thank for a simply stunning save to keep us level. He’d barely been tested to this point, but pulled off a world class stop to deny Mateta as his reflexes came up trumps to tip the Frenchman’s powerful snapshot away for a corner.
The next chance fell to Isak. Trippier was the creator once again, swinging in a perfectly flighted ball from the byline, however the Swedish striker could only head straight at Guaita as the theme of tame efforts in the final third continued for the Toon.
Palace were struggling to get out or cause us issues on the counter without Zaha and Eze, leaving us pushing for a late winner with 10 remaining. Our final change then followed, seeing Jacob Murphy replace Almiron in hope he’d help us to another late 1-0 win.
Murphy almost made an immediate impact, flashing a ball across the box that just missed Isak. The ball found its way to Saint-Maximin at the back post, but his effort was deflected over.
Four minutes were added on and, aside from some handbags between Joelinton and Olise, there was no late action as it ended all square. A shame to miss out on all three points on a night where we always looked the better side, but these could be valuable lessons to learn with 10 days left to do business.
It shows how far we’ve come that a clean sheet, dominant display and draw away at Crystal Palace feels like a bad result.
Next up, a trip to Southampton for the first of two Carabao Cup semi-final clashes!
4-3-3): Pope – Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn – Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock – Almiron, Wilson, Joelinton.
SUBS: Dubravka, Lascelles, Saint-Maximin, Ritchie, Lewis, Isak, Manquillo, Murphy, Anderson.
Almiron & Wilson have been nowhere near pre Word Cup form, Almiron has reverted to type and Wilson doesn’t seem to have the same movement, pace or finishing, perhaps he is carrying an injury?
I can’t see us in a Champions League place unless we discover how to get goals again, the finishing has been abysmal.
The defence however has been unbelievable!
Joseph(Quote)
16 shots today – 7 on target.
Finishing and quality in the final 3rd certainly the problem today – and I say problem in the loosest terms coz we don’t have problems really do we.
One thing I really found frustrating again today though was 15 corners – don’t remember any of our 7 on target coming as a result of our corners though.
When you think of the size of some of our players – Burn, Schar, Botman, Joelinton – we should be one of the most dangerous teams from corners in the league.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Feels like two points dropped altho palace were pretty decent defensively
Agreed on corners the numbers look good until you check how many Newcastle get to first
It does look like teams are figuring out that staying disciplined and trusting our ineffective finishing is a good option to frustrate Newcastle. Worst scoring record in the PL since Christmas is a trend to break soon
Hopefully id someone with invention and guile to support guimaraes or a 6 to release him will complement those hard running wide players nicely
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
Must acknowledge the 15 game unbeaten run; first ever in top flight for Newcastle and first for a PL english manager this century.
Kudos Howe, his coaches and this team
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
I think the Palace strategy was to pack the box and it turned out to be a good one. We had very few clear shots or headers on goal and when we did they were straight down the middle. I think we have to bight the bullet and get a coach in specifically for headers. Klopp did it with a throw in coach.
We still should have won easily. This game and the Leeds game shows we are miles ahead of the mid-table teams and will qualify for Europe. Need a defensive mid and goal poacher THIS window. Is there the new Gerd Muller or Van Nislerooy out there 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I think this weekend will end up being treading water. I dont see Man U getting more than a draw at Arsenal or the same for Spurs at Fulham.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If you look at the table the only team that seems capable of catching us is Spurs. They have Fulham away next and then Man City at home. It is not inconceivable that they could get zero points from those games. They also have midweek games in Europe.
THis is set up for us to qualify for the CL. I dont really care if it is 3rd or 4th.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Disappointing. Not scoring again a problem. Jury out on Isak (60m??) Wilson a fading force, Almiron dulled. We need a goalscoring midfielder to replace Willock.
georgio(Quote)
I read an article recently where Liverpool fans were claiming that they had never replaced Wiljenum. So they had run a stats check of current midfielders who were most like him. They narrowed it down to two, one of whom was willock
PremAndUp(Quote)
I’d take Winaldum any day of the week. I don’t dislike Willock. We need goals from that position.
georgio(Quote)
I’ve been critical of Longstaffs finishing in recent weeks but agree others need to step up too.
That not only includes Willock but Joelinton & Bruno too.
What is encouraging though is since the return from the WC:
V Bmth – 17 shots 5 on target
V Foxes – 12 shots 5 on target
V Leeds – 16 shots 5 on target
V gunners – 8 shots 1 on target
V Shef W – 22 shots 7 on target
V Foxes – 22 shots 9 on target
V Fulham – 20 shots 5 on target
V Palace – 16 shots 7 on target
That’s only resulted in 8 goals from those fixtures, but I’d be more worried if we weren’t creating.
The other obvious and important stat is that other than the Arsenal game, we’ve averaged the most possession in all of the other games too – so we are creating a lot of chances & controlling games.
Our only ‘problem’ at the moment is putting the ball in the back of the net.
Sharpy17(Quote)
It’s also pleasing to hear Howe saying he want’s bodies in this window.
Some managers fear upsetting the board or offend the players already in the squad – but I think Howe addressed the question well.
I’m confident they ARE looking for improvements this window to be fair. I don’t think it’s Howe putting necessary pressure on the board to spend, I think he’s just being honest.
Sharpy17(Quote)
When we were talking about Anthony Gordon yesterday, I said I could see why – and I can.
BUT – he wouldn’t be MY first choice. Not even from the PL.
My preference would be Brennan Johnson from Forest.
They have just taken Wood & started him yesterday. If it develops into a permanent move they owe us £15m.
We could build a deal that involves Johnson – maybe Wood plus £20m or something like that.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think Forest would only sell Johnson if they are relegated. They won’t sell now.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Sharpy; Gordon has gone a long way backwards since Chelsea took an interest in him. Plus he has been coached by Super Frank and played as a number 10 and winger. I dont think he is either. I think he is a wing-back. He does have attributes, he is fast and can beat his man. Eddie would have to coach those niggly fouls out of him though.
There is potential there but like a lot of young English players the hype machine goes into overdrive and 30 mil is added to their price tag. It happened with Sancho and Rice. Declan has the potential to be a 100 mil player but he wasnt 3 years ago when the Southern media were naming him as th second coming of a combination of Bobby Moore and Stevie G.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Prem – yeah I should have said I meant more for the summer than January.
For January my number 1 target would be Maddison. If we can’t get him then I think Gallagher is a younger rougher version who could be developed & has the potential to be as good as Maddison – but Maddison is the hit the ground running option I think.
I’m not concerned about a replacement for Wood right now because we have Wilson & Isak, so Wood was 3rd choice. If we find ourselves needing that 3rd choice then I’d be fine with either putting Joelinton or even ASM as a short term fit.
I’d look at it again in the summer when we have Wilson, Isak & Kuol in the squad.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think everybody is of the same mind that we need a goal poacher and a defensive mid to get Bruno further forward. The 0-0s might end up being useful if they get the owners to spend another 60 mil this window.
We need someone whose first instinct when they see a move developing is to get 10 yards further forwards and preferably on the edge of the 18 yard box. There is a stat that Van Nisterooy never scored a goal from outside the 18 yard box for Man U.
Even under Eddie, how many times have we put in crosses only for there to be nobody there to finish them. That is the final piece of the puzzle.
We will never have a better chance of top 4, so we need to grasp the nettle.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If Demba Ba was in this team we would have 10 more points.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Shearer in this team! Even after his ankle knack he would score 30.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Garang Kuol is a wide forward. He’ll be competing with Maxi and Miggy
As to CF depends upon Budget. We have been linked with a couple of south american wonderkids, but if you want a bit more experience then we were looking at
Jonathan David from Lille probably £50m 23 yr old 13 goals and 4 assists from 20 as well as 22 from 27 for Canada
Cheaper and younger
Højlund from Atalanta for £20m 19yr old 4 goals and 2 assists from 14 in serie A and 3 caps for denmark
PremAndUp(Quote)
Actually who I really want this window is Edson Alvarez and Marcus Thuram
I also want Scalvini a 19yr old RCB as Schar’s long term replacement
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem – I’d take Thuram this window but don’t think we need Alvarez until the summer – when I’d expect us to have CL footy.
I could see David being a signing for the summer too. I think his Geordie national manager could help with that one.
I also like your Schar replacement for the summer too.
January would be Maddison/Gallagher, Thuram and a young RB ideally.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Prem: I know you are not a finance guy but how the hell are Chelsea spending so much money? The long contracts must have something to do with it but it still doesnt make much sense. Pundits and Journos say they must know what they are doing, but do they? Chelsea are the only English team to be sanctioned under FFP so they got it wrong before. They got a 1 year transfer ban.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It baffles & annoys me a little bit that we haven’t brought Thuram in yet. The lads versatility across the front line would make him perfect for us. He can cover any of those 3 positions – he’s only 25yrs so just coming into his prime really, and has 10 goals & 3 assists from 15 games this season.
He feels like a player that automatically makes your squad stronger – and having him, Isak and ASM on the bench – doesn’t get much better really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric
I know GoWest called me on this and he’s right it’s only part of the equation but I posted theis a couple of threads back
If the £500m is all on 8yr contracts then only £63m applies to this year. However they have prespent £63m for each of the following years. If they sell a player then that entire sale fee is placed in the current year. So selling a player for £65m this year puts them in the black under FFP rules. The risk is that a player is not good enough and spends 8yrs being paid for nowt as no one else will want them.
I think you mentioned Winston Bogarde in response
PremAndUp(Quote)
Does any other football club recruit the way Chelsea are under this new ownership?.
I’m no businessman, but it seems either genius or stupid to me. There’s a lot of very clever & successful business minds in football clubs around the world and if no other club are doing it, it suggests the risk isn’t worth the reward.
It does feel like you’d have more players say coining it in that a bunch of £70m players that you’re picking one to sell to balance the books.
Sharpy17(Quote)
https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en/inside-sports-law/blog/2022/08/new-financial-fair-play
Link above to article I was referencing.
I can’t comment on validity but an international law firm should have some credibility I guess
I conclude Chelsea are betting their future success against their ability to stall/ avoid future ffp action
The Chelsea owners may be bringing a us sport ownership style to the uk that seem to run in almost annual cycle of success bids. They are willing to write off eye watering wages for unsuccessful players / coaches. Two examples from NFL.
One head coach just been sacked one year into a guaranteed wage seven year deal. He’s currently enjoying a vacation in Thailand and directing a bunch of social media posts to the ownership
One NFL team currently paying wages of three head coaches they’ve sacked down the years as well as current head coach
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
Problem is that article doesn’t say anything other than the three financial areas that will be examined.
PremAndUp(Quote)
C’Mon Arsenal. Is this the week McTom finally gets a red card?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Aye .. and therein lies the opportunity to speculate. Because it’s not yet been applied under the new rules we can only speculate if Chelsea’s approach will work (financially ) while attempting to grasp just what the rules are
I wasn’t so much calling you on your post as trying to addin some info to show the complexity
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
C’mon Arsenal, can’t stand Manure
kimtoon(Quote)
Draw would be best for us
PremAndUp(Quote)
could be a good result here for us
go on Arsenal
kimtoon(Quote)
keeps the ***** below us
kimtoon(Quote)
Cracking game that like.
Credit to Arsenal – they’ve got some real guts about them under Arteta.
Sharpy17(Quote)
See owners are trying to buy. Formula 16 billion offered wow
Icedog(Quote)
Formula 1
Icedog(Quote)
I can see tensions rising at Spurs if Conte doesnt get a shiny new toy this window. His contract ends in the summer and he has been very coy about whether he will sign another one.
MY guess is that Conte will have realised by now that he will never win the PL with that squad and that Levy will never give him enough money to be top 2. Chelsea and Liverpool will not stay down for long.
Spurs are our only real contenders for 4th so we need Fulham to do us a favour.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Chronic are saying we might bid 30 mil for Anthony Gordon. There is something there but he is not a 60 mil player and I think Chelsea turned his head. It doent help that Frank cannot seen to decide where he can play. 30 million is perhaps worth the risk as he is super fast and not afraid to take a man on. He needs to have the fouls coached out of him otherwise we will have another Jack Colback who wasnt a bad player but would give away fouls on the edge of our area. See last weeks Everton/S’ton game for something similar with Gordon.
Gordon has been abysmal this year so I hope our recruitment team know what they are doing.
I reckon Everton would take 30 mil as they need the cash for a striker.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We definitely don’t have the players to score against a parked bus and that’s exactly what’s happened lately. It’s Howe’s problem to solve. Invite teams onto us to create the space we enjoyed earlier in the season. Now everyone knows how we play and they park the bus. Even 15 corners and 16 shots never look like scoring through a packed penalty area. Get a goal and then you can press them into a parked bus. Over to you Eddie.
georgio(Quote)
Just went looking for any transfer updates and the only player that keeps getting mentioned is Anthony Gordon – which can only mean one thing …. We won’t sign Gordon and will end up signing someone completely out the blue 😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
But he’s from the Blues ??
PremAndUp(Quote)
My money would be Loftus-Cheek a good buy for me was very close to being in England set before bad injury in fact I think he did play one game for England
Icedog(Quote)
I know I have been ultra critical of Gordon but if you watched him this year you would know why. Even the Everton Vloggers turned on him. Is he worth 30 mil? He might be. He had a good season last year and perhaps Super Frank confused him? We have seen first hand what a bad manager (Bruce) can do to good players.
Now Frank has gone the new manager will want a bit of money to spend. Gordon and TRex are about their only saleable assets. I think that might bring the price down because they are desperate. He was never worth 60 mil but if they can get 30 mil for a current bench warmer that sounds like good business to me.
He is super fast. I think he could spell Tripps as a wingback or come on for Miggy in the last 15 mins.
I have done a bit of a U-turn on Gordon as I think he may have been “Franked”
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ice – is that inside knowledge there mate?
I don’t dislike RLC – I think he could be the right sided equivalent of Joelinton.
It’s not going to carve teams open, but there’s not many midfield battles we won’t win with him, Bruno & Joelinton.
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY i cannot say mate or i will get to know nowt as i know he reads the blogs while sitting in his office
icedog(Quote)
Oh well in that case – Alreet Ices mate 👍🏻😂
Sharpy17(Quote)