Andy

We need to get a grip on our right hand side, they've done literally nothing down our left. Watkins always seems to turn into prime R9 against Schar.

Goal aside, Schar and Trippier have been shocking. Miles off it.

Tonali was playing him miles on after clearing the ball.

I don't think people are pissing themselves, it's reasonable to be cautious about getting overly carried away when half of our remaining games are against the current top 7. We're in the box seat, but it's by no means a foregone conclusion.

Aye, it looks good at the moment but it can soon swing the other way with a couple of negative results or key injuries. We are capable of losing form. The benefit for us compared to 22/23 is that we've been in this position before and done it, with largely the same set of players. The other advantage we have is the traffic between us and 6th. I'd say we're favourites, but with a cautionary asterix to say that there's still a lot of work to be done.

I mean, you're right, but a centre back isn't expected to be challenging with his hands, so it's a bit different For me, the fact is it wasn't a clear and obvious error. The ref already saw that Pope led with his fist and caught the player, he therefore didn't give the penalty because he thought he touched the ball. There's no way from the replays that you can conclusively say he didn't touch the ball; if anything the ball clearly deviates from its trajectory, therefore the on field decision shouldn't be overturned.

29 goal involvements in his last 50 premier league games. Incredible from him, to be honest.

Them two, Tonali or Guehi for me.

Was pretty clear he touched the ball from the reverse angle, like. The VAR even paused it with his hand on the ball.

Just Joelinton. Last thing we want is him getting himself a daft ban for Villa.

It's absolutely ridiculous that the ref can look at that slow mo and give it. Pope blatantly touches the ball. Them repeating the replay at 1000x speed over and over to make it look more dangerous was scandalous too.

Great first half. Hope we keep at it in the second half and get a few more since it genuinely could come down to GD this season. As others have said, I'd have Joelinton off at half time to avoid the inevitable yellow.

Villa will drop points in the run in. The Palace game is far more important IMO, we need to win our home games. Pushing ourselves above Forest tomorrow would shift the pressure on to them massively.

It's absolutely no coincidence that since he has had a prolonged run in the team, we've been one of the form teams in the league and we've won a cup. Second best midfielder in the league behind Rodri IMO.

Great win, very comfortable in the end. Dig out 3 points on Wednesday and the Villa game is basically a free hit.

Everyone's got Nick Pope's boots on so far

Fucking into these today lads. Beat these and Palace and 2nd place is on, fuck 5th.

I think the fact that it wasn't a sudden admission to hospital out of nowhere, but was after a few days of bed-ridden illness, is probably a good thing. Hopefully just a precaution after a bad case of fever or flu.

Such a stupid challenge to give that free kick away.

What's McCoist on about. Never a penalty in a million years

Weird thing to say given the clubs involved, but I'm actually worried about complacency for this one. I don't think I've ever gone into a game against these with the national expectation being that we would completely tea bag them, but that's how it feels, even from their own fans. Slightly worried that we'll botch it.

We've had a few weekends like this where we then haven't capitalised on other results, so hopefully tomorrow is different. Win these next three matches and Villa away becomes a much less pivotal game.

It was always likely they'd drop off given their lack of depth, especially once that wave of momentum they were riding died off. They don't have the same solid base that Forest have built, and they've pretty much been ran into the ground a bit like we were last season with injuries. Always felt mad that people were going into absolute meltdown about them briefly being above us.

I keep going back and forth on whether he meant it, the reverse angle is the one for me, the technique he strikes it with looks too controlled for it to be a wild cross.

Newcastle manager dodging the "Lord Mayor's Show" cliche is almost as big an achievement as winning a cup