Glory glory Newcastle United, glory glory Newcastle United, glory glory Newcastle United and the Toon goes marching on. These are the words I dreamt prior to the game about the fans chanting at St. James’s Park on Sunday afternoon after victory over Manchester United.
But then I woke up from my dream and realised there’s more of a chance of me playing in a Sunderland kit than Newcastle being victorious. Yet the unforeseeable did indeed occur.
Having not won a Premier League home game since mid-October, it was looking likely that Newcastle would be sent into the bottom three by the hands of Manchester United’s prestige attacking prowess.
But with the unstoppable debutant Martin Dubravka in goal, the Reds just couldn’t seem to hit the back of the net, even with many golden chances that would’ve surely settled the game had they been converted.
So when Matt Ritchie scored the only goal in the second half, the whole of the Newcastle contingent erupted. Mourinho said after the game that Newcastle had fought “like animals” – and the hosts certainly produced a fierce and committed performance. Jonjo Shelvey was superb throughout the whole game and captain Jamal Lascelles proved why he should be in contention for a place on the England plane heading to Russia. This performance from the Magpies reminded me once again why I love this beautiful game.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger knew victory against local rivals and Champion’s League challengers Spurs was incredibly essential to build on the foundations of last week’s 5-1 demolition of Everton and also to keep up the pursuit of a place in the top four.
But Wenger never fails to disappoint! Arsenal were quite frankly outplayed throughout most of the game and as for Alexandre Lacazette, he was shocking. To miss such a golden opportunity to level the game in the last minute proves Arsenal’s incapability of scoring when it matters most and now the Gunners have lost three consecutive away league games for the first time since a run of four in April 2017.
And as for Harry Kane, he was not quite at his ruthless best in this North London derby – so it is testament to his persistence, character and quality that he was the match-winner once again. A truly magnificent striker who should be put up there with the best in world football today.
Other results include Swansea City edging further away from the Premier League relegation zone as Ki Sung-Yeung’s late strike gave them a significant win over Burnley. Chelsea manager Antonio Conte praised the club’s fans for sticking by him, after a comfortable win over West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge eased the pressure on the Italian. Southampton manager Mauricio Pellegrino claiming the “biggest defeat” his side suffered in their 2-0 loss to Liverpool was “the character we showed in the second half”.
Now I don’t know about you, but I just completely forgot about Sergio Aguero. With Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah and Eden Hazard doing the business, it is understandable that Aguero may have fallen a bit off the radar. But with four second-half goals against Leicester on the weekend, 3 being set up by KDB, the 29 year old Argentinian reminded the world as to why he is considered one of the Premier League’s greatest strikers of all time.
For me, Aguero is one of the most under rated players in the Premier league, with 21 goals already, he has essentially been second choice for the first half of the season, with Pep Guardiola preferring the now injured Gabriel Jesus. This goes to show how much of a quality player he is and if Manchester City are to let him go in the summer, the rumours are suggesting they could, then that would be one of the biggest mistakes the Sky Blues could make.