Gulf In Class Exposed Against City

A 5-1 defeat by Manchester City over two legs of the EFL Cup wasn't unexpected after Newcastle lost the first leg 2-0. In truth the tie was over at SJP and after going 3-0 down in the first half the one positive, albeit slight, was that we didn't collapse in the second half.

Talking of truths; what these two games really showed was the huge gulf in squad quality between the two teams.

City could afford to start the game without a raft of their nailed on best eleven players - Haaland included - and still field a team that could genuinely compete for a top four PL spot. In comparison to our blank January window, City bought Semenyo and Guehi.

That City team were up against a Newcastle side without Tino, Bruno and Jo and their replacements Trippier, Ramsey and Willock wouldn't even get into City's match day squad.

Add in a totally ineffective Woltemade - a £69M player who hasn't scored in 12 games - what chance did Newcastle stand of getting the goals needed to turn this tie around? Zero.

Just 11pts from 36 against teams above us in the PL

Take out the 3pts from the home win against City and that leaves just 8pts from 33.

The simple fact is this; Arsenal, City, Liverpool and Chelsea significantly strengthened their squads in the summer window. They spent big on top quality players - some of whom Eddie coveted - players who are a gulf in quality ahead of our signings.

Manchester United signed Mbuemo and Cunha, two players who have proven well worth their big fees. It's not a huge surprise - with the undoubted talent in their squad - that Carrick, after dumping Amorim's tactics, has got his team challenging for a CL place.

The five teams above have widened the gap in quality over Eddie Howe's squad. Our summer window that was intended to narrow the gap has done the opposite. Over £200M spent on players who - possibly Thiaw apart - have not improved the first 11.

Woltemade and Wissa - signed for the fee we got for Isak - are a pale shadow of our former talisman. Isak could conjure a goal out of nothing, turn a game on it's head in an instant, and take on and beat the best defenders in the world.

ST's of Isak's calibre are the hardest to replace. And we haven't replaced him.

Where do we go from here?

Another truth is that there has been no run of consistent strong performances.

There have been patches in games, but the EFL tie wins (all at home) and good results in the CL, belie our PL performances.

Only two wins away from home, 16pts dropped from winning positions, a GD of 0.

After the Brentford game our next six PL fixtures are Spurs A, City A, Everton H, Man U H, Chelsea A, Sunderland H. A daunting run of games on our current form.

Understandably, some fans are blaming Eddie Howe for our faltering campaign. Whether we think that is unfair or not, the buck always stops at the boss's door.

My take? Eddie's persistence in playing 4-3-3 when it consistently wasn't producing the performances and results expected has to be questioned.

However; the summer transfer window hasn't improved the first 11 (if Eddie played a big part in that he has to take his share of the blame), yet again we've been hammered by injuries during a gruelling four competition fixture list, and key players like Tonal, Jo and Gordon have been way off their best form.

IMO some serious thinking needs to be done now about which players Eddie believes can take us forward - and those he believes can't.

If that means selling some of the new signings then so be it.

To turn around the squad given the restraints of PSR may also mean selling one or two of our valuable players.

A brave decision, but that's what brave managers and clubs do.

IMO, this squad isn't good enough to be genuine top four contenders.

If we don't take action in the summer we'll fall even further behind the top clubs and Hopkinson's talk of challenging for top honours by 2030 will be just that. Talk.

Change the manager?

I'm not sure. But for the first time I am not dismissing it.

Eddie still has time to show he is the man for the job.

Let's see where we are at the end of the season.

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