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Ighalo, the old Watford player n all. Halcyon days. The guy was a good servant for his country, so won't knock him too much, but the idea of "Misses Ighalo" playing for Manchester United is hilarious. I have no idea what is happening at that club. He is the sort of player Newcastle should be signing in this window. Slimani is a better player, but is in the same mould and a previous failure in this division.

It feels as though Tottenham and Man U have both had truly disastrous seasons, so it is a bit jarring to see that they will be fifth and sixth after tonight, and still well-positioned to chase fourth. Premier League is complete rubbish this season.

Michail Anotnio has not been mentioned yet. He always seems to cause havoc. Felipe Anderson too.

What, the press make out a black player has an attitude problem for dubious reasons? Never! He did have an attitude and discipline problem at Nice, that is evidenced by the fee NUFC paid for him (much like Ben Arfa). Vieira was tired of him. He is a young boy, though, and a great talent. Having some issues at 20 and 21 is not some fatal black mark for a career.

2021 African Cup of Nations has been moved back to January/February instead of June.

Kelechi is one of my favourite youth prospects ever, tbh. I would love it if he rejuvenated his career, I had given up on the boy a couple months ago.

Leicester's main tactic in this match was to have Kelechi and Ayoze press very high up the pitch. Playing a long, slow ball across the entirety of the penalty box when there are two quick forwards aggressively pressing all match long is suicidal play. It does not matter if you are Barcelona, the pass is crazy in that situation. Look at the position of the players. Lejeune has made a 30+ yard pass with both forwards turned in his direction immediately ready to chase. The best possible result is Schar having to clear or play it to the keeper as Perez will be harrying him.

Grouping those two together is a genuine insult to Moyes. I wonder what it would take for Howe to be sacked. For a team that is now meant to be fairly established in the league, their results and performances have been horrendous recently. Has he earned the right to take Bournemouth down?

This could be 5-0 again. Leicester have been below par and leggy, imo, but it has still been easy. The individual errors recently are farcical. I do not care who the manager is, playing the ball slowly across your own box in that manner is inexcusable at any level of the game. Schar and Lejeune should both be dropped for their recent performance, but there is no one to replace them. Notably the best chance at 0-0 fell to Joelinton, who was never going to score. Laughable quality at both ends. Leicester have great quality in midfield and NUFC is trying to compete with a half-injured Shelvey and Hayden. That battle is incredibly one-sided and will only get worse with no changes. This version of 3-5-2 is badly exposing the lack of quality in midfield.

It is not a "joke". It is a law designed to be interpreted by human eyes that is now being taken to the finest margins possible with highly questionable technology and methodology. The margins are far too small for the technology being used, so the solution is either to improve the technology/methodology or decrease the margin. I am genuinely stunned at how terrible VAR has been in the Premier League. It is markedly inferior to when it debuted on the biggest stage at the World Cup, and I was not fond of it at that time, either.

Sometimes I watch Traore and wonder why the guy isn't the best player in the world. He can be incredible at times.

What was Mendy doing?

Away to Man U is almost always a completely rubbish defeat for Newcastle, no matter what the state of that team is, tbf. Last season, they were 2-0 up in the first ten minutes against a team in open mutiny against Jose and still managed to lose. We should just move on and judge them against Everton.

3 goals from laughable mistakes. I don't think Longstaff even looked back. One of the defenders pointed him to pass it back and he just hit it anywhere.

Mistakes kill the confidence of marginally talented teams like Newcastle. The performance level of every single player has dropped after the errors from Dubravka and Schar. I do not believe there is one particular tactical issue that is the root cause.

Wrong. It wouldn't have progressed to that point because the whistle would have blown for the initial foul.

Schar has been disgraceful in the last 15-20 minutes.

Suicide defending. Rubbish.

Getting skinned and grabbing the player's shirt afterwards is usually an automatic booking.

Very saveable shot.

Matty again

With the attacking players available, a 0-0 draw away would be a good result, tbf. It is such a poor group going forward. Ugly is what should be expected.

Ajax will regret the collapse at Stamford Bridge. Going out now unless they or Lille equalise.

He would look horrendous in this team (like Joelinton) and end up chopping bench as he has for the last year. I am a massive fan and happy he looks to be getting his career back on track, but Kelechi is not a player you can just smash the ball at and hope something will happen. Frankly, I think of him more as a #10 or support player that happens to be a very good finisher, rather than the pure target man/striker that this side needs.

The injury was simply down to him over exerting chasing a ball down in the last minute, disappointing. Saying Atsu can do a passable job is complete bollocks. Atsu is no where near the player, it’s ridiculous to suggest he can do half the job. He’ll be a big miss, he’s our out ball at the minute, we’ve nobody else like him. It absolutely isn't bollocks. Atsu's perfectly fine at carrying the ball, he's just got zero end product. ASM has one goal and how many assists? Is it zero? Their contributions therefore aren't going to differ enormously. I'm criticising the system here, not the player. He's clearly very talented but it's not like the team is built around him, or anyone for that matter (aside from when Carroll's on the pitch, when everything becomes about him). ASM's quick and a decent dribbler, so he's only used to be direct, without any real sense of purpose beyond that. As it happens, pace and dribbling is literally all Atsu has - so he can basically just come in and do the same thing. Much lower ceiling talent-wise, obviously. Fair enough the system and the pattern of play will be very similar, but you discounting one of the main benefits of having Saint-Maximin in the side. Opposing players and managers are terrified of him embarrassing them or getting in behind and that affects the way they go about defending against him. He creates space for others that way. Atsu hardly worries the opposition at all, and he has a profile much more similar to Almiron (graft, link play) than ASM.