Stottie

We're doing great in all three competitions. 16 points from 9 games may only get us sixth, but its a solid start and there's still a long way to go. Based on performances, it could easily have been twenty plus points. Us doing well in CL also makes it more likely that England will get another CL place. Early signs are that top 5 will be a much easier ask than top 4. If they can keep it up, good luck to Villa and Brighton. A little luck to Ange, who's a good un. Fuck everyone else.

In fairness, Schar looks awful on the Ferguson hat-trick goal at Brighton. Even good players can bad moments, and they will be more likely when the team is already multiple goals behind.

Trippier needs four more to match Gary Neville. Five more to be joint fifth all time for a defender in the PL. https://www.squawka.com/en/outright-markets/defenders-most-assists-premier-league-history/ Given the two and half seasons in La Liga (10 assists that don't count), that's not too shabby. 17 in 64 games for us, all comps.

It's easy to forget looking at the result, but Palace had conceded only 7 goals in 8 games going into this. Fourth or fifth fewest in the league when today's game kicked off. The keeper we put four past started for England last week.

I think he's been fine. He's clearly not Howe midfielder-level fit yet. Howe likes em very dynamic. Tonali wasn't a metronomic ball-recycler in Italy, he's more a creator, so it shouldn't be a surprise for him to be hitting loose passes in a faster league. As with the fitness, it will take time for him to get up to speed. I thought it clear at the end of last season that we leaned too much on Bruno to make things happen, so I was happy we went in for a creator and not a #6.

https://x.com/xGPhilosophy/status/1711033231372374263?s=20 My own calculation of "didn't deserve to win" is based on our first goal being somewhat lucky. I wouldn't be against a rule change making that count as offside.

Down, up!, and then a bit down game, but a decent point. We didn't do enough relative to them to "deserve" a win. Lots of big games recently, so its good we're getting a break.

Wow! 2-1. W Ham defence completely static.

Wood got plenty of minutes, it felt like right up till he was sold. We're chancing it having only two strikers, esp. when one of them is Wilson. Joelinton and Gordon both leave a hole to fill elsewhere. Minteh might do it, and its certainly a bonus him getting CL minutes, but not this season. Unthinkable two years ago that we'd have a loan player playing at such high level. Based on age profile, I suppose next one in should be RCB, RW or Wilson replacement. Trippier's replacement is in already. If FFP is an issue and Saudi are buying, I suppose selling Almiron would be option. Personally, I reckon FFP was definitely a factor in not pursuing earlier interest in Maddison, Pedro, and probably Diaby too. Possibly even Szobo.

His overall passing accuracy stats at Milan weren't especially good, so I see the current version of him as an extension of that. Like Gordon, he's been bought for skill, physical attributes, character, etc. and they all look fine. The Premier League is faster than Serie A, so patience is required.

Amazing stat. In those fourteen games, the two draws were Leicester home, where we hit the woodwork three times, and away at the San Siro.

Macarena time! As another nice stat, going back to the last time we played this fixture in April, twenty-one competitive games ago in all comps, we have scored 4 or more goals in seven times. Once every three matches (!!), including West Ham, Spurs, Brighton, and now PSG. For a team that gets lots of commentary on here about attacking play, "can't beat a low block" etc., we do seem pretty good at twatting the opposition.

4-1 against PSG, their heaviest ever group stage defeat, in only the second CL game Eddie Howe has ever attended. There is also some mad stat about no first half shot on target being the first time in ten years for PSG in all comps. That'll be over 500 matches.

Great game from him and suicidal from PSG to not engage our mids. Fantastic work from Bruno for both first half goals. For the headed interception that set up our first, Bruno was 25 yards from their goal, almost right on their D. Longstaff scored from a run deep into the right halfspace. I know they are useful shorthand for other teams' tactics, but the terms "#6" and "#8" mean very little for how we actually play.

The only game I ever attended with snow on the pitch. Man U home, Feb 1985.

Sorry if Giggs but Opta have us as slight favourites. The link is below but there is no real analysis there, just power ratings and talk about recent form. No focus on matchups or anything. https://theanalyst.com/na/2023/10/newcastle-vs-paris-saint-germain-prediction-preview/

Now level on PL goals for us with Laurent Robert. Miggy will be miles behind on assists. Isak is now level with Remy and one behind Andy Carroll. https://www.11v11.com/teams/newcastle-united/tab/stats/option/scorers/

Huge fuck up. It was a fantastic finish by Diaz as well. The first booking on Jota is a joke too, but sounds like it came after another foul by him (I'd gone to bed by then). After Fabinho and Milner getting away with multiple fouls last season, including going in studs up, I must say my sympathy for Liverpool in particular is limited. Before the season started, the talk was on how rule changes would stop our shithousing and Eddie and JT conferring, but seven games in, the big takeaway has been Liverpool actually getting cards, including red ones. Klopp has been a boy calling wolf for so long that again, its hard to have sympathy for him when his team actually does suffer an injustice.

Routine win. Saw off early scare and then should have scored more than we did. Hope Joelinton isn't too bad. He was immense against Man City. https://x.com/xGPhilosophy/status/1708149023637438645?s=20

It's fine to disagree! I just think there were more similarities with game at the Etihad than differences, and that the difference in results lay at the margins (+ weaker City team yesterday) and in a short spell where we were dominant and got the all-important goal. My main concern is that folk (including people who should know better like Craig Hope) were overcritical of the Etihad performance, and this started a lot of negativity that was doubled by Liverpool fluking a win at SJP and then the "everything that could go wrong...." type day at Brighton.

Great performance! Dare I say it, not that much different to the game at the Etihad, but we kept them out and managed to conjure up a strong spell where we scored. We didn't do that at their place and it was enough for some to see the game as a disaster. We restricted them to only two shots on target. It must be their fewest in a while. Brilliant from Livramento and great to see Joelinton back and firing. He's a monster on his day.

Poor lad. Just as he was settling in to the team. Its a long season, so I'm sure he'll have a role to play later in the season. I was just thinking about Wilson vs Isak and had Barnes in my Wilson front three. It was Murphy/Gordon Wilson and Barnes, focusing on supply to Wilson as a box striker. Isak drops deep and links play, so it occurred to me that we could rotate to playing wide forwards. Such as Miggy Isak Joelinton/Gordon. This all assumes everyone is fit and available, of course, and was just a bit of fun. They're all good players in whatever setup.

Just on fixtures so far, but Tottenham have played three of the current bottom four. We have played (and lost to) all of the top three, two of them away from home. Stats suggest Chelsea are better than their results, although that also happened under Potter. On top of their injuries, Man U have effectively lost Sancho and Anthony for the time being. With CL expectations too, they need to hang in there and grind out some results with whoever they can get on the pitch. Even if Ten Hag has a vision of where he wants to take them, the emphasis may need to be getting what he can out of what he has available.

I love Wilson. He missed a couple but was denied a penalty for the trip on Gordon. Wilson has a bit of a reputation for selfishness, but there is no way we score eight and Alan Shearer only gets one of them. We all know what happened the last time.

Eliot Anderson was hit by a bottle when the score was only 3-0. There is a time for sympathy, but not when teams are putting in spineless performances and their fans are throwing shit at the opposition early in the proceedings.