So I’m in sunny Spain for a few weeks. I could say that it hit 21c today and I was sat in my shorts in the afternoon, but I wouldn’t want to make anyone jealous. Being abroad did bring some problems though and the big one was that for some reason I couldn’t access the site to post anything. Hopefully I’ve sorted things now.
Bearing in mind I haven’t read any comments on here, I’ll give my opinion.
I know Tielemens got MOTM and I agree somewhat. His through ball for the first goal was just superb, for example. He does so much in the middle of the park, that doesn’t get noticed as much as the more obvious stuff.
Even so, I’m going to choose Rogers as my MOTM, because I just thought he was excellent all round. He unselfishly passed to Duran for the first, hit the post and then later, scored, all while constantly scaring the proverbial out of Man City.
I just love watching the lad. I do appreciate that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea though. Why, perplexes me, but it’s all about opinions, isn’t it?
Regardless and I’m not trying to put a dampener on the result, how poor are City? Make no mistake, we played very well for a good part of the game, but boy, City offered very little and showed exactly how a team can revolve around a couple of players and when both aren’t available, the team struggles. I’ve had a few chats with footy fans generally and the basic conclusion has been that Pep should have left a rapidly aging side far behind him in the summer, safe in the knowledge that he’d done a good job (if you think stupid amounts of money doesn’t matter). They surely must have offered stupid amounts of money for him to stay.
Suffice to say they look like relegation candidates to me, bearing in mind that I said similar about us very recently and we seem to have turned things around.
Which takes me back to us and not them.
I thought the game was won in the middle, with all the mids p!aying well. They outfought city’s and I remember mentally noting that we just wanted it more than them. We still played too slowly at times, misplaced loads of passes (city were worse) and the defence still looks easily breachable, albeit better.
My somewhat cynical self was left wondering how we’d do against superior opposition and we’ll no doubt see that in our next game against the Barcodes.
I’m taking nothing away from the lads though. You can only beat what’s in front of you and in a game where generally speaking a win is unlikely, they got it.
It was a great result, simple as.
UTV!
Anthony Taylor is nothing short of an outright cheat – every decision he makes is in favour of Newcastle – even when it’s a Villa free kick!
Onana has been awful today, but collectively we’ve not played well.
£60 million?
Will someone please explain that one to me?
Let’s get this game over with. Newcastle probably would have won this game comfortably even without Taylor’s help.
You know what to expect at the Barcodes stadium and we weren’t up for it from the start. Kamara messed up on the half way line and then Gordon with all the time in the world to take the shot.
And as I type, they make it 3-0 thanks to another error, this time by Onana.
It looks like Eddie Howe has got Emery’s number!
We got what we deserved. Nothing.
Poor performance, that.
Mid table with -3 GD – like ManC looking down not up. I can’t see us being in Europe next season so have to make the most of it.
All that’s left is the CL as, no doubt, we’ll just fall out of the Cup without putting up a fight.
We need a rebuild but PSR will make that pretty impossible.
Trying to find a positive without much success.
That was shite. Let’s just move on.
An argument could be made that we’ve been hamstrung by PSR but then again it could also be made we’ve brought some absolute shite?
Given that every side make questionable transfer decisions, I don’t think Villa have done too badly.
Villa to appeal Duran’s red card – I think that’s correct but we’ll get nowhere as we’re not ManC, Liverpool, Chelsea etc.
Coote got struck off, Taylor should be excommunicated!
Unai was pissed in the post-match – and rightly so. He even mentioned VAR stiffing us two weeks ago at Forest with the clear penalty. To lose fair and square is fine, but that stank – the officiating was clearly NOT impartial – even the commentators on Amazon were constantly making more than strong suggestions that Villa were rightly aggrieved and right to be questioning decisions. I’m disgusted, personally – officiating like that should massively reduce the value of the PL product – simply not good enough and officials should be grilled after matches and justify appalling decisions.
As for the red card, what was Duran supposed to do, unbalanced and hurdling a tackle – fly? The ref couldn’t handle 50,000 Geordies screaming at him is the truth, which means, quite simply, that he’s not fit to referee at that level. Absolute joke.
Disgusted, and I hope the Villa annihilate Brighton on Monday and get it out of their system, not least because I’m finally taking my lad for the first time to VP.
UTV
and FVAR (or lack of it, in today’s case)
No doubt we have not benefited from referees in general. We have won a few but lost plenty. Where we have done well is with the results of other games. This weekend neither Man City, Man Utd, Tottenham, Bournemouth and Chelsea have failed to win. We sit just one point from joint 5th. We have two home games and then Everton away. Are the Gods smiling. Me thinks they are.
Not sure I agree with ‘Newcastle would have won comfortably even without Taylor’s help’.
Sending Duran off changed the game – add Taylor’s dodgy officiating and we were never likely to achieve anything.
Players are,affected Pschologically by what they perceive as unfair descions going against them. And it wasn’t just one decision!
I hope Villa,fo challenge the red card and make a big fuss over poor refereeing and sh*te VAR.
UTV
Mate the writing was on the wall from the moment Guimaraes swung a boot, missed the ball, ended up on his arse and the clown with the whistle gave him a free kick.
From that moment it was obvious Coco the knob head clown had it in for us and it was only a matter of time for some game changing decision was going to go against us.