Survival Remains Newcastle United's Primary Objective
This is starting to feel like something exciting is happening at Newcastle United. It may be more by luck than design, it might not last, but rarely can United fans have been more pleasantly surprised by their football club.
If the 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland was a once in a lifetime opportunity to revel in the demise of their local rivals, the 1-0 win at Arsenal was just as rare and tasted just as sweet.
In fact, given the thrashings the Gunners have dished out in the past, given how many times I've seen both North East sides out-classed, toyed with and tossed aside at the Emirates, this was a remarkable result.
The biggest compliment I can pay Chris Hughton and his players is they made Arsenal look ordinary.
Alright, so the Gunners hit the crossbar twice and Tim Krul pulled off one truly incredible save, but overall, if you watched the whole 90 minutes, United were rarely under any sustained pressure and rarely in any real trouble.
The win over the Black Cats lightheartedly lead to talk of a top half finish this season, but the win over Arsenal should give the Magpies the belief they can achieve far more than just a battle against the drop this term.
I'm getting a little carried away aren't I? But three successive league wins, two of them away from home, does that doesn't it and so does seeing United looking down on the rest of the top flight from the lofty heights of fifth.
If I'm honest, I thought they'd be doing pretty well if they were fifth from bottom at this stage. However, before anyone starts to get over-excited we should remember that, at the moment, the Magpies are taking teams by surprise.
That won't last and neither will their good luck with injuries. What happens, for example if Andy Carroll, Chiek Tiote and, say, Joey Barton all picked up injuries which kept them out of action for a six to eight weeks at the same time?
It's a small squad and I have a feeling it might get smaller in January when players leave because of a lack of first team football.
Alan Smith and Peter Lovenkrands are two of the names that spring to mind, while surely Leon Best will be packing his bags sooner rather than later. And what about Ryan Taylor?
Injuries have a habit of kicking in when the weather turns colder and the matches pile up over the Festive period, so let's not start thinking of this as anything more than an excellent start to a long hard race.
Hughton's contract situation does not paint the board in a particularly positive light, but it's also getting a little boring talking about it the whole time. They have said they will sit down with him in the New Year and it isn't the New Year yet.
If they don't get it sorted in January, then we can start to question what is going on, but the decision to effectively put the manager on trail at the start of the season made sense at the time.
Hughton had never managed in the Premier League before - at least not as a permanent manager - so of course he had to prove himself.
For me, he has done that and deserves to be rewarded with a more lucrative, shall we say, three year deal. I hope that happens, but I also wish we could stop banging on about it as well.
Nothing is going to happen this week, Derek Llambias is on holiday, so let's just hope everyone focuses on trying to pick up six points from the two home games against Blackburn and Fulham.
They do that and they will be more than halfway on the road to Premier League survival, and for all the excitement generated by recent results, that has to remain the primary objective.
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Luke Edwards - is Chief Sports Writer of The Journal and uses his blog to give a unique and entertaining insight into events at Newcastle United and Sunderland.
Yup I agree.It's easy to start getting carried away after recent results. The lads have been magnificent and are playing for each other every game. The team has really bonded under Chris Hughton and I believe come January Mike Ashley will certainly hand Chris the contract he deserves. Good point about the players wanting to leave for first team football. I think we might keep them till the end of the season but will eventually be sold and replaced with better quality players.
I agree with MA on CH contract, when does the average person get a pay rise just for doing his job well? as you say Luke there is a long way to go yet. I don't want CH to leave and yes if things become unstable mainly by whats written in the press then they'll have to act but CH is still new to all this, he is doing a good job but lets not get carried away. If he has an agreement to talk about it in the NY then thats good enough, I'm sure thats what will happen. by then we'll know if he has done a good job and not just had some good luck. I also agree with you Luke; it was hard to believe with only 5mins to go we were about to beat arsenal and they just didn't look like they were going to take that away from us -Brilliant!
I share your excitement at the current position the toon are in. I also fear that injuries could derail our season as we have seen so many times in the past at NUFC.
Tiote, Carroll and Ameobe as well as Joey Barton have all been key players for us in the last two weeks and injuries to any one of them, never mind all of them, would be a real issue for the side. As for players leaving in January, you may well be right but lets hope that MA has learnt his lessons well and that any money earned by the sales of such players is made available to CH to replace the outgoing lads with new and hopefully better player to replace them.
Its not all gloom though, we have Dan Gosling yet to play in a B&W shirt and some very promising youngsters coming through the ranks as well. I am sure that Mr Ashley will again support CH in the Jan transfer window, after all, he has to look after his investment if he does plan on eventually selling the club as a going concern.
Night games are always the time when I feel that My Park truly gets transformed into My Theatre of Laughs. Unfortunately for Little Chris it was Big Sam who left tonight's spectacle laughing all the way.
Seriously though, I do hope that Luke and the rest of the until now Giddy with Excitement Gang that have recently been spectators at my shows will get a little more balanced about when to get foolishlyn silly or when to be gripped with angst. And of course, The Carroll and Nolan Rodeo Riders should also learn to contain themselves while 'celebrating'. Perhaps switching from Coke to Pepai would help all concerned calm and regulate their emotions.
So, my simple message is be realistic about what you wish for, because otherwise I might have to make another movie under the title "Carry On Paddling Up the Tyne".
Your eternal saint Sid.
Hello, hello, is there anybody there? Think Luke must have gone on on vacation with his fellow entertainer Sebastian. Guess I would too after such a bad afternoon in Bolton if I were not already in paradise. Perhaps next week will provide more laughs when the Carroll Singers are back at my theatre.
Carry on smiling despite the fog on the Tyne. Your eternal Saint Sid.
Hello, hello, is there anybody there? Think Luke must have gone on on vacation with his fellow entertainer Sebastian. Guess I would too after such a bad afternoon in Bolton if I were not already in paradise. Perhaps next week will provide more laughs when the Carroll Singers are back at my theatre.
Carry on smiling despite the fog on the Tyne. Your eternal Saint Sid.
Sorry for my lack of blog action but we were a little under-staffed last week and I seemed to be doing both football clubs and Newcastle for the Sunday Sun. But enough of my moaning, normal service has resumed and I'm back online again.