Newcastle United 1-0 Arsenal (02/11/24)

[Dr.Spaceman]

34 minutes ago, PopeandGlory said:

 

Him turning up to work with that bizarre grin on his face whilst his reign was very publicly coming to an end was another high point. 

 

Some dreadful memories from that season. The Norwich away game was a killer. Should’ve won it with a Cisse chance towards the end at 2-2 and then they scored with almost the last kick seconds later. 90 seconds of football that ultimately sealed our fate.

 

"Come here, come here, come here...."

[The College Dropout]

Under Rafa we stay up if he’s hired 3 games earlier. It took him awhile to get in the groove but by then it was too late. 
 

Did we lose 1-0 to Man City by an Aguero goal where Aguero was offside the entire time?

 

I hated the SMC reign from early.  You can tell we did lots of silly passing in training but that was it.  That smile was a bluff. He never got a tune out of the players. Couldn’t motivate them. Bruce and Pardew were definitely worse coaches but as managers, their emphasis on morale, team work and just being affable with the players meant they never truly lost the dressing room (until the end for Bruce) and could get a tune out of them with a bit of confidence. SMC could never generate any team spirit and momentum into a run of results. Players never bought his bullshit. 

[HaydnNUFC]

36 minutes ago, madras said:

I really dont think so. The Sunderland and Norwich games were so poor and they were after loads of time to prepare.

 

We only lost at Norwich due to a handball in the build up to their stoppage time winner tbf. Quite a few refereeing decisions went against us all season that year, the Aguero offside goal at SJP probably being the pick of the bunch.

 

That handball goal at Norwich doesn't get given and the Aguero goal given offside and we stay up with 4 points from those games rather than 1. I kna football doesn't work like that but y'kna.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by HaydnNUFC

[madras]

6 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

We only lost at Norwich due to a handball in the build up to their stoppage time winner tbf. Quite a few refereeing decisions went against us all season that year, the Aguero offside goal at SJP probably being the pick of the bunch.

 

That handball goal at Norwich doesn't get given and the Aguero goal given offside and we stay up with 4 points from those games rather than 1. I kna football doesn't work like that but y'kna.

 

 

 

Yeah fine margins and all that......remember the performances? We were terrible at Norwich and Sunderland should've beat us.

[HaydnNUFC]

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

Absolutely yes.

 

The last time Ashley did anything vaguely progressive and/or built on momentum was January 2012 with the Cisse signing. The dreadful season that followed firmly put a fork in that ever happening again. 

 

Probably, yeah.

 

But a big result of us going down was Benitez restructuring that squad with the Sissoko, Wijnaldum and Townsend money. His policy was affordable players or players with low release clauses that had played regular Championship football within the previous 3-4 years (as per Douglas' book). Hence many of those signings particularly the likes of Hayden, Hanley, Diame etc and the bids for Forestieri and Knockaert. 

 

But what it meant was we had a squad good for the Championship. And we've been lumbered with at least 3 players from that squad still in 25 man squads up until this season. We needed an overhaul which was obvious upon promotion which Ashley was never going to provide which was clear from the January 2017 window.

 

But the squad that went down was a decent side as shown in those last 6 or so games and in patches under McClaren. If Benitez was messed around in his first transfer window after that mess of 2015-16 season then the pro Benitez-anti Ashley malaise sets in earlier. Where would that have left us? As if Benitez even just kept those better players we wouldn't have been fighting relegation under him like we were due to the squad not being added to/upgraded. That's Ashley's doing ofc, not Benitez'.

 

Ah whey, the FCB is gone. Thank god.

[HaydnNUFC]

4 minutes ago, madras said:

Yeah fine margins and all that......remember the performances? We were terrible at Norwich and Sunderland should've beat us.

 

I don't for once really, but I do remember that handball and Cisse missing a glorious chance at Norwich. The mackem game I've probably blocked out the performance due to the nerves. 

 

The worst performances in that run were Southampton and Villa rather than those two imo.

[madras]

10 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

I don't for once really, but I do remember that handball and Cisse missing a glorious chance at Norwich. The mackem game I've probably blocked out the performance due to the nerves. 

 

The worst performances in that run were Southampton and Villa rather than those two imo.

Thanks a fucking bunch......I'd blocked out Villa as well.......until now.

[Elma]

51 minutes ago, madras said:

Liverpool first half was as bad as I've seen us in the top flight. Then they took the foot off the gas due to a big game in Europe midweek. Spurs was after we'd been relegated and they'd imploded at Chelsea the week before. Sunderland, Norwich and Palace were the big games, we were poor in them all. 4 points, needed at least 7.

That's kind of my point. We may have been better against Sunderland and Norwich (the early big, six-pointers) had we had more games and time on the training pitch under Rafa prior to those fixtures. I mean we still got those points against Liverpool and Spurs, and should have had two more against Man City, were it not for an horrendous offside call. We were getting better as the season went on.

 

I know Rafa thought two more games would have done it. 

[Teasy]

Apparently according to TeamTalk we're going to sell Isak to Arsenal and replace him with Gabriel Jesus 

 

 

Edited 42 minutes ago by Teasy