After the Chelsea win, Steve Bruce spoke about the smash and grab manner in which Newcastle claimed the three points. He added that while the team is not always the best to watch, they are tough to beat.
It looked almost certain to be either a draw or a defeat until Newcastle won the late corner on Saturday. Allan Saint-Maximin and Isaac Hayden were able to create another memorable moment in a season that has had a few.
We didn’t create much going forward and were very sloppy in possession – the little we saw of the ball. However, the defensive performances were outstanding, and Chelsea just couldn’t break Newcastle down.
Our forwards too put in a shift defensively with Joelinton pressing Chelsea and Miguel Almiron tracking back to help Emil Krafth.
Of all the defensive performances, there was one Magpie who got much of the accolades after the game. It was very well deserved. That is Ciaran Clark, who we sorely missed when he injured his calf against Southampton and had to be removed at half time.
Clark returned last weekend in our draw at Wolves. Against Chelsea on Saturday, the 30-year-old was just brilliant. His performance is reflected in our poll result.
Ciaran Clark has won his first Man of the Match poll collecting 36% of the 3240 total votes. Miguel Almiron came in a distant second with 12% while Martin Dubravka was close behind him in third place.
It’s great to see Joelinton get a decent number of votes for the second match running.
Now, let’s see if Alan Shearer puts Clark in his Team of the Week. We’d be absolutely shocked if he doesn’t.
Who Was Newcastle's Man Of The Match In Win Against Chelsea?
- Ciaran Clark (36%, 1,158 )
- Miguel Almiron (12%, 383 )
- Martin Dubravka (11%, 360 )
- Joelinton (10%, 310 )
- Jamaal Lascelles (9%, 303 )
- Federico Fernandez (8%, 270 )
- Isaac Hayden (7%, 219 )
- A. Saint-Maximin (4%, 123 )
- Matt Ritchie (2%, 60 )
- Emil Krafth (1%, 22 )
- Jonjo Shelvey (0%, 16 )
- Matty Longstaff (0%, 9 )
- Jetro Willems (0%, 5 )
- Sean Longstaff (0%, 2 )
Total Voters: 3,240
97 comments so far
jane
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:17 PM
Comment #81“The round of 16 has been switched to midweek for the first time to create space for the inaugural winter break”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7883249/Premier-League-clubs-face-disruption-FA-Cup-fifth-round-spread-three-midweek-nights.html
investinyouthtoon
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:20 PM
Comment #82Pain in the Blog at 56. Agree totally with your words. There are those who assume that we speak or hold rafa in high regards, is that we assume he’s the greatest manager of all time who played fantastic attacking football and won every trophy ever. Well they are wrong on that cos he wasn’t, for those of us fans this was more than results or style of football, this was hope.
jane
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:21 PM
Comment #83if we reach the 5th round we will be home to Burnley the weekend before and away to Southampton the weekend after. we should play a strong team whoever the opposition.
Munster Mag
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:22 PM
Comment #84Pain, I take your point but thus is standard rafa modus operandi. He is a highly political animal and plays Robin Hood a hell of a lot. Did it in Spain originally, Liverpool, Napoli, Newcastle. The Italian I met hated his football and said a lit if the fanbase were agitating to get him out. He tried to play the owner there too. My wife’s pal is married to a passionate Madrid fan. They hated him. I don’t know much re Inter. Chelsea is full of nasty fans so ignore them. U thought he wud go to a Galatasaray. That’s the kind of club he needs. He went to China for money, completely going against his ‘staying near family’ lark. Rafa is v good, and Ashley shud have kept him. But the lack of critical appraisal of his football on this blog was odd, and driven by his hard core shouty fans. Well sorry chaps, but not being happy with the football of a só called (ex) World class manager does not mean being an ashley apologist. Get over yourselves. Thankfully the conversation re rafa is now far more balanced. And he remains in credit and rightly so.
Hail Wor Ashley
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:25 PM
Comment #85Oh I haven’t forgot my Rafa difference argument either for end of the season.
Think Jail had Rafa being worth 10pts over Bruce, that is the difference in quality between them over a season in pts their management gains a team.
So should we finish on 46 as I predicted he thinks Rafa would have us on 56, which would mean he would have to conclusively invalidate his own argument Rafa left due to a lack of chance to progress, as that would constitute solid progress, either that or he’d have to admit Rafa wasn’t as good as made out and the 10pt difference he previously thought he made was mistaken and Bruce is just as good.
Lose-lose situation from JfAs point of view, nowhere to hide. No rhetorical trick to escape his own judgements, he will have to pick one of his darling arguments to kill.
Least he had the balls to commit to a number though, after much coaxing and baiting it has to be said, unlike some of the Rafa is God weasels.
Munster Mag
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:27 PM
Comment #86Invest, I didn’t have huge hope. Ashley isn’t a great owner and had a bad relationship with rafa. SB will play Ashley better and although Bruce doesn’t have anything like rafa’s pedigree, he might get more transfer joy which will stand to us. The players clearly love him, which is great.
jane
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:35 PM
Comment #87Everton away – lose
Norwich home – draw
Arsenal away – draw
Palace away – draw
Burnley home – win
Soton away – draw
Sheff U home – win
Villa home – draw
Bournemouth away – lose
West Ham home – draw
12 points takes us to 41 points so almost safe by then.
Nicky the ball tosser
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:35 PM
Comment #88We were terrific over the last two thirds of last term, a really high functioning unit. It’s a moot point, but for what its worth I certainly think we’d be more efficient on the counter, have more of the ball and would have a better goal difference if Rafa were still here.
Munster Mag
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:37 PM
Comment #89Oh, and the players shouldn’t like him, because he is tactically inept, lacks in sports science knowledge and injures them?
kilcline
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:38 PM
Comment #90From lower leagues we should go after:
Bowen
Eze
Matheson
Watkins
Munster Mag
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:46 PM
Comment #91Hard to judge Nicky, to be fair. No perez to press cleverly and get us up the pitch with his excellent runs with the ball. No rondon to hit those long balls to. And stick. Rafa wudnt have st max near the gaff, not defensive enough. Rafa wud have a better second half to season but Bruce is doing better so far, even if the comparison isn’t like for like. For rafa to be 10 points better by end of season, we wud have needed a very very tidy second half of season. A mute point, but we were told Rafa was world class and SB was dreadful. All some of us said was ‘give him a chance’ once he got the gig. Seems reasonable.
Munster Mag
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:47 PM
Comment #92Kilkline, who is Watkins? I keep seeing his name. Tks
Reilly
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:47 PM
Comment #93https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7905653/Steve-Bruce-aims-mould-attacking-Newcastle-style-FIVE-transfer-windows.html
giimps
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:57 PM
Comment #94Everton away – draw
Norwich home – win
Arsenal away – lose
Palace away – lose
Burnley home – win
Soton away – draw
Sheff U home – lose
Villa home – win
Bournemouth away – draw
West Ham home – win
13 points and 10th place, safe from the drop and hopefully still in the cup
Also, hopefully a new owner after our previous one decides to retire from business because of those nasty shareholders not agreeing wif him
jane
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:57 PM
Comment #95good article that, sums things up nicely. i’ve copied it below..
“The more you watch this Newcastle side, the less you understand about football. With just about every metric imaginable, they are in the Premier League’s bottom three — passes, possession, shots on goal, expected goals, shots conceded… the list goes on.
But forget the statistics. Even the naked eye tells you they are not playing well. Manager Steve Bruce labelled their ball retention ‘painful’ and said he wants to build his own team.
Yet still, somehow, they win matches. Perhaps it is that their relative success — 12th in the table and seven points clear of relegation danger — cannot be measured by in-play numbers. After all, sweat, spirit and good fortune are difficult to quantify.
But it does not feel sustainable, a team who rarely have the ball, whose strikers do not score and who rely on their goalkeeper to make save after save. Though we have been saying that ever since their revival began with a 1-0 win over Manchester United in October.
It has made little sense, and Saturday was another example of Bruce’s side defying footballing logic, Isaac Hayden heading a 94th-minute winner from their first real attack of the second half.
‘Frank will go away thinking, “Jesus”, wondering how they got beat,’ Bruce said of Frank Lampard, his opposite number.
Chelsea got beat because they struggled to break down Newcastle’s excellent back three and, when they did, they misfired or were denied by Martin Dubravka.
Asked what his January transfer window priority was, Lampard shot back: ‘Attacking areas, because we need to be more clinical.’
Bruce, meanwhile, is thinking longer term. Indeed, this victory gave him the confidence to talk of the next five transfer windows.
He wants to move away from a style of play still reliant on the default resistance drilled into Newcastle’s squad by former boss Rafa Benitez. Bruce has, in fairness, done well to recognise their limitations after a difficult start. ‘I would love to play the way I want to play, take on Chelsea and get after them,’ Bruce said.
‘We can’t compete like that at the minute. We have to stick with what we are doing, and that suits us.
‘I have tried to change and we are not ready. I won’t put the club in jeopardy just for a nice style.’
Matt Ritchie, whose sweetest connection was with a corner flag that bounced into the crotch of a male supporter in the wake of Hayden’s winner, said: ‘We are where we are. The fans would like to see nice, pretty, free-flowing football, but it can’t be like that all the time. Even the best teams sometimes have to win ugly.’
So can this last or, as instinct tells you, will they embark on a winless run?
Newcastle were four without victory before Saturday but, just when they need a result, this team finds one.
Supporters remain cautious, for there is a feeling of getting by on a game-by-game basis.
Where is it heading? Survival, first and foremost.
Beyond that? Well that is the challenge for Bruce. Perhaps then it will all start to make a little more sense.”
kilcline
Jan 19, 2020 at 10:59 PM
Comment #96Good evening Munster
Watkins is a striker for Brentford
Probably won’t leave due to their promotion hopes.
We are poor at picking up good youngsters, Carlisle youngster going Everton is a disgrace
TomaKaThor
Jan 19, 2020 at 11:04 PM
Comment #97Well safe to say anyone who read the whole conversation from early will know his reasoning for being a keyboard warrior are null and void lol…ooops i added a lol it might set the delicate narcissist off again.