If Jermaine Jenas was relishing the chance to return his former club with Tottenham I’d hate to see how he played when he wasn’t looking forward to it.
The poor guy (or should that be goldfish) had an absolute shocker, despite his bold boast about thriving on the animosity aimed at him at St James’s Park. By my count, he passed the ball straight out of play three times, failed to have a single meaningful shot and was responsible for United’s third goal as he failed to close down James Milner.
Nice work son, please come back soon. Oh well, at least you’re living in the big city and will be able to disappear into the crowd for a few days to reflect on how embarrassing things were for you on Monday night! Would be terrible if you will still stuck up here in a goldfish bowl wouldn’t it?!
Basically, it was a job well done against Tottenham and Sam Allardyce can feel proud of what he has managed to achieve in such a short space of time. Don’t get me wrong, Newcastle are far from the finished article and the defeats at Manchester City, Derby and Arsenal are still too fresh to get carried away, but things are definitely improving.
The win over Tottenham keeps them in touch with the European challengers and there is a good chance Uefa Cup qualification is within their reach this season when you consider their rivals are likely to be Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth.
This, in case you need reminding, is Newcastle’s best start to the season since 1996 and, although none of the 'Big Four' have been played in the league so far, it has been an encouraging start for the new regime.
Newcastle have also been scoring plenty of goals and while Allardyce’s side may not have the same cavalier approach to attacking football as Keegan’s entertainers or the blistering counter-attacking pace of Sir Bobby Robson’s young side, they certainly pose an offensive threat, whoever the play up front.
A strikeforce of Obafemi Martins, Michael Owen, Mark Viduka, Alan Smith and Shola Ameobi always looked dangerous on paper and the competition for places means the manager always has plenty of options in that department. With Emre in midfield and Charles N’Zogbia on the wing, there is also genuine creativity in the side for the strikers to feed off.
Martins was the better of the two forwards on Monday night, but it was good to see Owen given a standing ovation when he was replaced late on in the second half. So much for the United fans who don’t like him, eh? Or maybe, in some twisted version of events which will find favour in London, Newcastle fans were cheering because Allardyce had decided to take him off!
Interestingly only league leaders Arsenal have a better home record than the Magpies so far this season, so if Allardyce can finally get things right when they’re on their travels, Newcastle could be a very dangerous side indeed.
It’s Reading on Saturday, precisely the sort of game Newcastle teams have lost in the past and, with the pain of the 1-0 defeat at Derby still lingering, it is something Allardyce is yet to remedy.
There will certainly be more pressure put on the defence which hasn’t kept a clean sheet away from home, although Cacapa is looking like a magnificent acquisition. The Brazilian hardly speaks a word of English. Presumably he can’t read it either, but he can certainly read a game of football and his calming influence at the back is already evident.
The only person you have to feel a little sorry for is Shay Given. Foreign languages are not his strong point and he admitted he is struggling to get his opinion across in games, even if the screaming rant he had at Jose Enrique in the second half against Spurs probably didn’t need a translator after the full-back had left his man free in the area.
To his credit, though, Given has taken up Spanish classes in an effort to improve communication, particularly with Enrique. Unfortunately the Republic of Ireland international’s best efforts have not impressed Cacapa, probably because the national language of Brazil is Portuguese so Given’s attempts to start a conversation last week were met with a puzzled look until the multi-lingual Geremi explained the blunder to his goalkeeper.
Not Shay’s finest moment, but at least his heart's in the right place....
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »