That penalty is making me sick. How many games have we dropped in the premiership on penalties this season?
They look like a bunch of lost boys out there......if they don't gain control of this downward spiral in the Premiership it might be a long season.
Good News: Someone else other than Shearer has scored domestic points Bad News: Doesn't look like its going to matter and its going to be another long week of publications.
There may have been no contact, but it was too close to call. Still, I have to wonder what Jenas was doing raising his arm like that. He may have been pushed, but everyone's going to see that arm go up. Damn, and I thought we could escape with a point from Highbury. What a letdown. Nice goal by Bernard though. Dyer gets my MOTM for the two assists.
When you go in the air and lose balance, an instinct is for your hands to raise. Its extremely close either way you look at it. Its a tough pill to swallow, but soon they will start winning some domestic games.
Thanks for the PBP. It is a good thing that someone other than Shearer scored. But as I mentioned earlier, Arsenal was at home and was highly unlikely to play 10 behind the ball. The true test will come in the lads' next home match against Soton. I wouldn't be surprised to see Strachan go with one up top and bunker down.
I've never been here before and it's such a welcome change from the manure coming out of AF and RvN sycophants on our corner of BS. I'm not here to patronize but to agree with Robson's view of the game. AFC might have looked better early on, but the goals were on a misclearance, a set play and a PK. NU had two beautiful goals from the run of play. You guys deserved better.
I can't believe Shearer didn't win a single header. I know that the Sleestak Keown can hold his own, but why didn't he try to match up more with Kolo Toure. Did anyone hear someone yell "mine" on the missed clearance? Was it Given or Bungle yelling? Baldy should have never been near that ball. Get well, soon Woody. Props to Frogbert for finally scoring. Thx, Jay!
Once again Robson's inability to bring in the quality we need in center defense has bitten the team in the Arse. I still think that Wor Bobby is a brilliant manager and I'm glad we have Woodgate (that is, when he's healthy), but he shouldn't have stopped shopping there. Instead, money has been spent on a slew of midfielders, none of whom seem to be remotely capable of providing defense. No way that Gary Speed makes either of Jenas' costly mistakes. Hell, were he still an option Rob Lee would have done nicely. Yesterday's match was of the exact type that you need to involve a player like Speed in. Going beyond his experience, the guy simply doesn't over-commit himself nor make costsly mistakes -- especially not two in the same game. If Speed's fitness is too much of a concern to have him play in both the Breda and Arsenal matches, why wasn't he brought off on Wednesday night? 60 minutes in the match was 3-0, yet it's the young, fit kids that get subbed out (Dyer, Bellamy, Bernard). Against Arsenal, Speed should have at the very least have been brought in as an early second-half sub to help shore up an already mistake-laden defense. perhaps then Newcastle would have escaped with a 2-2 draw. I'd go off on Bramble, but in defense there really wasn't many other options, were there? At least none that few fans would have objected to. Don't get me wrong, with all the young talent in the side I'm giddy about the future of the club over the next 3-5 years. But that doesn't change the fact that we simply cannot afford to wait for Jenas and Bramble to develop consistency in their game.
In my view our best defensive midfielder is - Clarence Acuna!! He has never let us down and has previously played two storming games against the Arse (the 1-1 and 0-0 home draws last season and two seasons before that). And yet, he is not even in consideration for selection. And, in contrast to games at SJP this season (Breda excepted) the support to the team on Friday was very good. Overall, I left Highbury fairly optimistic on Friday. Yes, we started badly and gave away two bad goals, but we fought back well and ought to have got at least a draw. At 2-2 I really thought the game was ours to win. If we can repeat the general performance and cut out the daft individual mistakes we will do well against most of the Premiership teams.
1. That shouldn't be an instinct for a multimillion-dollar professional athlete. 2. It's his own damn fault he lost his balance.
Multimillion dollar athlete or you......if you go into the air and you are bumped...you will lose your balance......and tell me where your hands go. Its a simple matter of Kinesiology.
I had thought that from his performances last year that Jermaine was going to be a solid consistent performer for us this year...but after the penalty debacle in Asia, he seems to have hit a rough patch. As for the probs in defense....what about Stevie Caldwell?? He's surely as good as Titus, and has been committed, if not a quite capable servant to the club, well maybe not anymore after being snubbed for some reason by SBR. Also...Nik the Greek..laugh if you want, but he's regularly played for Greece and may be able to be a bit more consistent than Bramble. When Dabizas used to play, I remember him F###ing up less than Bramble seems to now.
I couldn't agree more...I question if it's rather more an inability or a choice. I think Uncle Bobby thought that Bramble would come good in the end..but as you stated we can't afford to wait for that time to come. The 8 million or so spent on Viana should have been spent on another quality defender. Unless Bobby plans to play Hugo in his preferred central midfield slot, I doubt he'll ever be more than a fringe player.
But that high? I understand that it helps you balance since John O'Brien did it against Mexico in WC2002, but Jenas looked like he wanted to touch the sky. Ah hell, what's it matter, we lost and we're in relegation zone. Things better pick up.