I honestly thought yesterday was going to be really tough to win our first Premier League game of the season, against Aston Villa at home.
The Villains had done so well once new manager Unai Emery came in last season and they finished in 7th place with 61 points, just 10 points behind Newcastle.
But I was completely wrong.
Newcastle went ahead with a great goal from debut boy Sandro Tonali after 6 minutes.
And then the debut boy for Villa, Frenchman Moussa Diaby, a former Newcastle target, scored the equalizer after just 10 minutes and looked like a great player in the first half.
We went ahead before halftime with a good goal from Alexander Isac after just 16 minutes.
A beautiful free kick from Tonali from right midfield was sent back across goal by Sven Botman and Isak was there to hammer the ball past Martinez, who would later make some good saves to keep the score down.
The second half was basically one-way traffic as Newcastle lifted their game into a higher gear, and went after Villa.
Goals from Isak on 58 minutes – a great chip over the goalkeeper, then Wilson after 77 minutes, who was set up nicely by new-boy Barnes from the left, and then Harvey Barnes himself scored one of his trademark goals after 91 minutes with that right foot of his coming in from the left.
What a player this lad is going to be for us this year – he’s certainly got an eye for goal.
That made it a wonderful 5-1 win and one of the best performances by a Newcastle side in their first league game of the season.
The Newcastle fans were absolutely magnificent and the place to play your football right now is in the great City of Newcastle Upon Tyne.
🙂
This is what Eddie Howe Told Match Of The Day after the game:
“We scored five – we could have scored more. Everything clicked for us,”
“It was a tight game decided by our ruthlessness in front of goal. Villa were also in the game, so we’re very pleased. We had to be at our best.”
“We knew we had a difficult start [with the fixture list], so you look at this game as a massive moment in our season.”
“Now we have to go to Manchester City, which is the hardest place to go.”
“We’ve got to embrace the challenge and then of course Liverpool, but we will focus on City first.”
And so to our Man of the Match and we have to say not one single player had an off day yesterday.
And it showed just how strong our bench is with the contributions of Wilson and Barnes coming in the second half.
Tonali, who will become a world-class central midfielder under Eddie Howe’s coaching, is our Man of the Match with 59% of the vote currently.
Second is Aleksander Isak with 20% and third is Anthony Gordon with 16%.
Note that all three players were signed over the last year by our recruitment team under the leadership of Sporting Director Dan Ashford.
Please vote if you haven’t already done so.
We cannot expect this every week, so we will have to calm down, just a little bit.
There again maybe Newcastle will dish this out in every game – they will certainly try to do that under Eddie Howe.
🙂
Hope so, because our long-suffering fans deserve this and the new owners, players, and coaching staff have allowed Geordie fans all over the world to dream again.
And we will.
Newcastle United is a happy family these days – and there’s more to come.
Howay The Bonnie Lads!!
211 comments so far
coming home
Aug 13, 2023 at 7:55 PM
Comment #201Taco
Do players receive points for a win ?
Iv no idea how they score
Essex Geordie Bill
Aug 13, 2023 at 7:56 PM
Comment #202CH
If, sorry when, we are morphing into the best team in the world Isak and others will not be wanting to leave.
A Geordie Mongrel
Aug 13, 2023 at 7:56 PM
Comment #203Forgot the link, https://youtu.be/ZXtxd6HZQs8
Ooooo........it's Nicky the ball tosser
Aug 13, 2023 at 8:00 PM
Comment #204Been trying to figure out a little better how we play. We don’t play a really high line, nor do we just swarm all over opposition defenders when they are on the ball, trying to win it back as soon as we lose it, as far as I can tell. We tend to sit compact in the middle of the park, with very little space between the lines for the opposition to pass through, and not enough in behind to be caught out too easily, and essentially operate with great unity, intensity , pace and technical ability. It’s all happening in sync and at a really really high tempo. To be honest, when you consider what is required to achieve this level of performance, and then compare it to how we played under Bruce, not even 2 years ago, honestly, you couldn’t write it.
magicmac54
Aug 13, 2023 at 8:06 PM
Comment #205Chelsea have the exact same problems as last season, they play some beautiful passing football and pretty much dominated that second half against Liverpool, but in the final third they are toothless and offer no penetration or goal threat what so ever, i can see Chelsea drawing a lot of games this season.
magicmac54
Aug 13, 2023 at 8:19 PM
Comment #206Nicky@204
A lot of thought went into that post Nicky, and you more or less covered all bases, to simplify it, all lot of hard work and energy, plus great organization planning and discipline overseen by Eddie and the whole coaching team Nicky.
The Taco Taker
Aug 13, 2023 at 8:33 PM
Comment #207CH,
I cant explain all the basic rules and it is pointless for me to do so when they are all explained here:
https://fantasy.premierleague.com/help
I hadn’t played it prior to last season. I am not an expert and I made a huge mistake last season but managed to get promoted somehow despite that. I also don’t listen to FPL experts cos I can’t be arsed to bother with that bollox, I like to think for myself.
My advice, for whatever that is worth…understand the rules of the game or you are screwed and you wont know why. Beyond that I have certain principals in terms of how I play and they worked pretty well for for me last season. If I stick to those principals is a question I will leave my opponents to consider.
😉
niafron
Aug 13, 2023 at 8:39 PM
Comment #208I didn’t know this story about women’s football in England.
What an injustice…
TheDrewid
Aug 13, 2023 at 10:10 PM
Comment #209Women’s football is as dull as ditchwater and the skill level is pish. That’s why barely anyone watches it and that’s why the best team in women’s world football got rinsed by a schoolboy team from Texas. Not Manchester. Not Liverpool. Texas. That had bugger all to do with the FA running interference.
Pug, you’re wrong about the US men’s team wanting to be paid the same as the women. It’s the reverse. The women’s team took whatever their governing body is to court to contest a pay deal that they fought hard to obtain.
Basically, they rejected the same pay deal that the men were getting in favour of one that delivered more perks (travel expenses/maternity leave/etc). When it transpired that, had they accepted the original deal structure, they would’ve actually been paid more than the blokes, they kicked off. Perversely, had the men been given the deal that the women were offered – they would’ve been paid more.
I have a daughter that I love dearly and want nothing but the best for. All of my favourite people in my life are women and I want nothing but the best for them, but let’s not sit here and pretend that women’s football would ever, in any conceivable universe, be on par with, or able to generate as much money as the men’s game.
TyneMouth
Aug 14, 2023 at 1:54 AM
Comment #210Declan MICE. Perhaps…
Kendall Jones
Aug 14, 2023 at 2:50 PM
Comment #211Ed – are you based in the triangle nc? Would love to get up with you sometime. Thanks