Benketke booked. Villa's been fouling like mad and Dean's been letting them get away with it. Clearly he hates the French.
'Member when Pardew knew what he was doing at halftime? He's certainly lost that magic since last season. Even though our bench/options have been shit this season, there's no reason Jonas wasn't replaced first. I'll take the win, but the jury is out right now on if we'll have enough to make it over the relegation line. Maybe with everyone healthy, but we're still putting all our striker eggs in the Cisse basket. Thx, Jay!
Exactly, don't get why he took perch off, he was controlling the flow of play in the middle. Jonas has to have done pardew's wife or something. He was downright awful, apart from that block on the line.
That last ten minutes were some of the most nerve wracking ten minutes I've ever had watching a sporting event. Great first half, pretty terrible second. First Half MOTM: Sissoko Second Half MOTM: Krul Have to think that Marveaux would have been playing for Jonas if not for his slight knock. Pretty ecstatic about the three points. The fact that beating the fourth-bottom team represents a major achievement shows just how far we've fallen..
Don't you mean Pardew must have done Jonas' wife and Jonas has the negatives. If he'd have done Pardew's wife I'd think he wouldn't even make it on the bench. I think Jonas has reached his expiration date as a EPL starter. Another questionable decision was starting Perch over Anita. I agree that Perch is a good utility player, but Anita has him on quality everyday of the week. I'd really like to see what Anita and Sissoko could do together after a few games and they are used to each other. Thank goodness the team held out. I was beginning to think this team didn't have that type of heart to grind a result out anymore. Krul finally turned in a performance that could be categorized as a "World Class" performance.
I wonder if a revolving three-man midfield of Sissoko/Cabaye/Anita might not be the best thing for us. All three can defend, all three can go forward. As long as they don't all do either at the same time, could be golden.
First win since December 22. Feels good. Tiote's gonna come back from South Africa thinking "oh.........shit." Also, Cabaye's goal probably made every female Geordie pregnant. What a stroke.
More collected thoughts on the game last night. According to the same source I had for the first XI, Marveaux was indeed set to start in place of Jonas. Jonas didn't exactly cover himself in glory, he was functional in the first half, and pretty awful in the second. We started well, Villa couldn't get a hold of the ball and the first half was something of a stroll. Sissoko was in total control of the middle of the park and looked very assured on the ball, it was nice to see someone able to stroke the ball around to exactly where he wanted it to go. Tiote has tended to look more like a terrier chasing after a bouncy ball when in possession this season, with the passing accuracy to match. His pass through to Cisse for the first goal was glorious, so deceptively simple, yet the kind of pass that is incredibly hard to pull off without great accuracy, when Cisse took it and found himself in on goal he dispatched it with the accuracy we came to expect last season (is this the time of year Demba will stop scoring too?). Other than Insomnia rattling the post with a thunderous drive Villa never looked like breaching our defence. By the time Cabaye found the top corner from the edge of the box we were all thinking it should be a stroll to three points with us being two up with half an hour played. Unfortunately at half time Lambert must have given his bairns several packets of sherbet dips each, as they came out full of renewed enthusiasm, threatening both our goal and the legs of our players. With the way our lads started the second half I was imagining our dressing room looked more like a Gentleman's club, with the lads quaffing brandy and smoking cigars on leather-bound chairs. A generous penalty award on Deboosh gave them the chance to pull one back, which they did. Newcastle United, never make it easy when it should be. You could tell the lads were nervous of losing the lead again, and we still had 40 minutes to hold out. Shortly after Jonas had his calf raked from behind, and Mike Dean seemingly thought this was fine as Jonas rolled around in pain. It was at this point that Dean lost control and I thought a sending off would be inevitable. Lambert's bairns seemed confused, as though the normal rules don't apply and set about arriving late into challenged and catching our players at every opportunity. This is the kind of thing dinosaur commentators laud as "committed" English play, it stunk of desperation to me, and wanting to show they were up for the fight (although taken too literally in this case). A surprise came on 69 minutes as we took off Perch and brought on Marvin Gaye, who on closer inspection was actually Shola sporting a beard. Suddenly we seemed to be attacking, as though the subs in the Reading defeat had hurt Pardew and he decided to do the opposite. Villa were getting joy especially down our left side, as Santon again seemingly forgot his first job is to defend, and Jonas wasn't covering. Often the ball was switched to Villa's right and there was nothing but Colo and space between them and the touchline. I thought Santon was off contemplating his next ridiculous hair-style... he certainly wasn't where you'd expect a left back to be... namely... left back. He did show some good attacking flair though, and pace on the cover on occasion. In the end we held on... and three points is a welcome relief. Watching it for the second half was a lot like being tortured, waiting for Villa's equaliser that thankfully... never came. Chelsea next on Saturday.
3 points is 3 points. If we stay up it will be because of the new players and not Pardew. The Perch sub was to put it mildly,..."interesting" but I suppose Santon needed help from Jonas because that's the only reason I saw for Jonas's existence at all. I'd disagree that Strolla's impact was to bring the attack, but to man mark that big git in the middle whose name I didn't catch. I like Jonas and think he'd make a great impact player later in the game, but its getting pretty obvious that he's only there to take up some space in front of Santon. It was a typical Pardew second half bunker ball performance from us. We sat back allowed the pressure to defend a lead and gave them openings to kick us...which thankgawd for Krul, and yes Jonas, we did for once. At one point we were kinda like Spinal Tap playing "Big Bottoms" with 3 Centerbacks instead of 3 Bassists... It will be interesting to see just how Pardew handles these new players, Saylor included, throwing himself about with that insane wild abandon. Is it just me or is he the applying to be a Geordie Cannavaro? I'm quite happy that the rotting piece of driftwood called denial Russel and I are clinging to doesn't look like its sinking at the moment