New Formation, Better Performance, Same Result

Eddie Howe and Toon fans wanted to see a much better performance than the team has shown in recent weeks - and that's definitely what we got at the Etihad where at least a point would have been full deserved and where Arsenal were glad for the final whistle.

If only...

There was talk on the blog yesterday about Will Osula's control - or the lack of it - and it took only one minute of the match for that conversation to rear it's head again.

Put through by Joe Willock and clear on the left of the box Will swung a leg at the ball only to find fresh air and his backside hitting the ground as a result.

If only he had taken that chance the game might have turned out far different.

Eddie's new 4-2-3-1 formation and Arsenal's jittery play gave us plenty of the ball and possession in good forward areas. Had we gone 1-0 up right at the start of the game Arsenal and their fans might have jittered even more and then... who knows what?

But Osula missed, and after a third short corner wasn't tracked Eze curled a corker way beyond Pope to put the Gunners ahead, arguably against the run of play.

Where was the in game management?

I was late getting to watch the game so listened to Newcastle Radio and John Anderson picked up that Arsenal had used a short corner that no Newcastle player tracked.

Shortly after, another short corner and again untracked. Anderson, rightly, said we needed to buck our ideas up or we'd get caught.

And get caught we did, when a couple of minutes later another short corner saw Toon players standing like statues as the ball was passed on to Eze who rifled it into the top corner.

To say Anderson was incredulous is an understatement.

It was absolutely inexcusable and totally unprofessional that neither Eddie or the likes of Burn or Tonali reacted to the short corners by tasking a player to track the runner.

That lack of in game management cost us a goal and the loss of a deserved point.

For all our good work and commitment during the rest of the game that 'clear and obvious error' sent us crashing to our fifth successive defeat.

On that awful run we've shot ourselves in the foot a few a few times... but not tracking a third successive short corner was a double barrelled shot gun moment.

Unbelievable at this level of football.

The chasers all win

Forest, West Ham and Spurs all won to gain another three points on us.

That's the first part of the 'almost impossible' run of results that are needed to put us in real danger of relegation.

I'm not trying to make you choke on your cornflakes or put a dampener on your Sunday... but this is where we are at after 34 games of a massively under achieving PL season - needing at least one win to make relegation absolutely impossible.

The only cheer I take is that Sunderland were hammered 5-0 at home and hopefully that sticks a spanner in their form and we can overtake them in the last four games to stop them crowing that they are 'Cock of the North' at the end of the season.

Forget Europe, that isn't happening.

Avoiding relegation and finishing above Sunderland is where our season is at.

Who would have believed it before a ball was kicked last August.

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