Stottie

Much of the doubting of Barnes was of the "I know he scores goals but what does he actually DO?" nature. In fairness, if the subject were Callum Wilson and not Harvey Barnes, I'd almost agree with them. Just a fwiw, but Barnes also came on and got our fourth against Luton, the other match where we came from two goals down. Liverpool and Villa come from behind very often and its an ability we need to improve on.

Nice graphs! Thanks for telling us about them. Here's my offering to the nerds. Its our xG vs. goals scored and conceded based on the scoreline at the time. The one to focus on is our xG and goals scored when leading by one goal, here listed as game state "+1". From xG (chances created), we should have scored 13 and conceded 7. However, we've managed to score only 8 and somehow concede 13. On precise xG, its an 11 goal swing, quite possibly equivalent to 12 points or more. On a minutes basis, we've conceded over 2 goals per 90 to teams we were able to take the lead against, once again off not that many chances created by the opposition. This strikes me as bad luck (uncharacteristically missing chances at pivotal moments in games), compounding the bad luck we've already had through injuries.

Yes, points from losing positions is a stat "The Other 14" on Twitter often put up. The points difference between us and Villa is pretty much the difference in this stat, with them top and us third bottom before today. Some of it will be bench quality, and ours has been crap in many matches due to all the injuries. It was a sub who won it for us today.

Great performance, with a bonus bit of center forward play for the winner. Goal number three was a fine slice of #10 from Isak. Gordon played false nine for England U21. Isak's been playing #10 for Sweden. It makes you think should we ever go 4-2-3-1. Just work on them headers young Anthony.

I'm half surprised its only 4 with the Gordon header and Isak and Longstaff shanks. What a game! Craziest since the Arsenal 4-4. Harvey's now got 4 goals and an assist in 380 PL minutes.

Have two subs ever been subbed off before? What a mental game.

Its hard to sympathize with Forest after them buying in two dozen players. This rule putting an effective sell-by deadline on players though will simply force down prices and make this thing an even bigger racket than it is already. Spurs getting Johnson for say 30m not the 47m they paid just because Forest have to jump through an arbitrary hoop by a time set midway through a transfer window, not the end of the window, would not make football fairer.

Breaking news is Forest docked four points. Their defence is that they would have been okay if they had firesaled Brennan Johnson, but they waited to get more money in for him. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/18/nottingham-forest-docked-four-points-premier-league-financial-rules-breach-profitability-and-sustainability

Can we blame Harvey Barnes for not starting in place of our player of the season? Someone who many fans themselves thought was a "waste of money" or "not a priority" when we bought him?

Disappointing and vexing game. When we've had a strong team out and not been knackered this season, Plan A has worked well as before, but when key players are missing, our tactics have left us as open as the goals against column suggests. Chelsea being there for the taking merely adds to the frustration.

Dunno, possibly best for us that they have other fish to fry. More chance of them resting someone. Them at full strength and in clinical late-season mode, I'd give us very little hope, much of that dependent on "the bounce of the ball" and other random factors.

6 goals and 3 assists in 9 games' worth of minutes in Eredivisie. He scored in the CL too.

This begs the question of whether obstruction by a non-offside player is acceptable or subject to VAR reviews.

Big miss after big miss

Very careless of Gallagher to give away the original free kick. Poch will be fuming.

Rule it out as obstruction or a foul, "offside" sounds ridiculous.

In case anyone's wondering, Harvey Barnes has no goals or assists against Arsenal but his record is P9 W4 D1 L4 Gordon's is P4 W2 D0 L2 with one goal.

Please please! Three in a row after Tchoumeni and Bellingham.

I keep hoping Tonali has some Furio in him. Externally suave and cool, but capable of next-level violence when the moment comes.

I thought we were too shit to blame the officials for our game. However, the Robertson one on Toney is as blatant a penalty you'll ever see. The Caicedo one on Doku looks like a stamp and is dangerous play regardless of intent. Right in front of the ref and he doesn't even get a yellow! The handball looks like arm moving to ball. I think you've got to give it.

Fine insight from Kevster. I agree on Pope as the biggest miss. Just on Burn, but my memory of him first season at CB when Targett was LB was that Burn was great until a big nosedive in form. It was around the time of that Chelsea game when we were robbed of a penna on Murph and then Havertz scored after Burn dived in and gone done. I can recall Burn overcommitting in a few games in a row around then. Anyway, my point is that I think he might be a confidence or form player, and its gone at the moment. He's not going to do anything going forward, he's not the type, but he would normally be more dependable than this.

It was a year ago, but the Amazon documentary was a bit like The Apprentice does football. Here are the money people on another conference call trying to get revenue up to make the club competitive. Not iconic football images like misfiring striker staying behind for shooting practice with the sun setting behind the goal. It's what FFP has reduced football to.

Just seen someone up it on Twitter. Its a wrestling throw in the 97th minute. https://x.com/NewcastleFansTV/status/1758212109387567598?s=20 I don't think you can blame the player for this. He's just trying to hold it up and seal a much needed win.

I thought Hall looked really good for Chelsea when they played us. I think there is a player in there, just not yet. He's also much younger than the others, and joined us for minimal upfront outlay, which is all we had thanks to FFP. If anything he is a scapegoat for what FFP is limiting us to.

If Ashworth is going to be playing with Man U money, I wonder if he'll try to buy Anthony Gordon. He's known him since England youth and Man U could pay the wages Sancho got. He would probably also magically appear in the England team. Realistically its 100M, so that's our FFP sorted, at the cost of our player of the season.