Toon playing like men dispossessed
BRUCE’S BATTLERS SHOW HOW TO WIN DESPITE SEEING LITTLE OF THE BALL Arteta’s patience close to the limit
NETTED: Burnley’s James Tarkowski gets in a tangle trying to stop Leicester’s goal
FRANK LAMPARD ON SUBBING TAMMY ABRAHAM PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM OF THE WEEKEND
ALEX-ARNOLD Liverpool
GREALISH Aston Villa
VAN DIJK Liverpool
HAYDEN Newcastle
JIMINEZ Wolves
POPE Burnley
CAHILL Crystal Palace
PEPE Arsenal
CLARK Newcastle
AGUERO Man City
McLEAN Norwich
Man City Liverpool Chelsea Leicester City Arsenal Man Utd Brighton Tottenham Norwich City Everton 64.67 61.93 60.27 57.06 55.03 54.94 54.83 53.12 50.03 49.48
Wolves West Ham Bournemouth Southampton Crystal Palace Aston Villa Watford Sheffield Utd Burnley Newcastle
STEVE BRUCE’S Newcastle are defying football logic.
The Magpies are making the unsustainable sustainable and turning smash and grab into an art form.
No team should spend so little time in their opponents’ half and be restricted to crumbs of possession and yet come away with a win.
It should be impossible to implement a game-plan devised almost entirely on prevention and turn it into something creative.
Yet negativity has become a positive for Newcastle.
The critics have claimed they will get their comeuppance and that their luck on the pitch will finally run out.
Not with the unquenchable spirit in Toon ranks.
Not when Bruce and his coaches have instilled such discipline, such resolve into a well-drilled team. This latest 48.44 47.9 46.07 46.02 43.68 43.23 42.87 42.13 40.29 33.42 win may not have been deserved but it had nothing to do with good fortune.
Yes, Toon keeper Martin Dubravka was again exemplary while Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham had a match to forget.
But this was not a tale of goalkeeping heroics or a spate of fluffed chances.
It was more to do with one technically superior side running into a black-and-white wall for 90 minutes and then in the dying moments being felled by a sucker punch from Isaac Hayden’s header. To his credit, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard
ARSENAL’S stars are still raving about Mikel Arteta but what is the point if they are still not doing their jobs?
John Fleck’s late goal showed this was the third time in four games that the Gunners – who led through teen Gabriel Martinelli’s first-half strike – have clocked off early. Chelsea did them at home three minutes before the end over the did not moan about daylight robbery. As for Newcastle, their wing-back Matt Ritchie said: “Growing up as a kid you’re watching teams going ‘Wow, look at those’. Barcelona, Manchester City, Real Madrid.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’d love to play superb, free-flowing football all the time, but you’ve festive period. Last week Crystal Palace pegged them back in the second half after PierreEmerick Aubameyang – serving a three-game ban – scored early and looked as though he had opened the floodgates.
Arteta, looking like a man running out of patience, said: “On this occasion I don’t think got to know who you are and where you are. The character’s brilliant and we’ve been fantastic all season as a whole – the shape, that desire to keep a clean sheet.
“The way for us to beat top teams is to play like that. If we go toe to toe with Chelsea we’d win two, maybe three out of 10.”
NEWCASTLE (5-2-2-1):
Dubravka 7; Krafth 5 (S Longstaff 71), Fernandez 7, Lascelles 7, Clark 8, Willems (Ritchie 12, 6); Hayden 7, Shelvey 6 (M Longstaff 85); Almiron 7, Saint-Maximin 6; Joelinton 7. Goal: Hayden 90.
CHELSEA (4-2-3-1):
Arrizabalaga 6; James 8 (Emerson 75), Christensen 7, Rudiger 7, Azpilicueta 6; Kante 7, Jorginho 7; Mount 6 (Barkley 68, 6), HudsonOdoi 7, Willian 7; Abraham 6 (Batshuayi 80).
A video of the Toon’s goal celebrations went viral yesterday after Matt Ritchie kicked the corner flag and it hit a fan...just where it hurts the most! One Twitter user posted: “Great through ball.” it was concentration. Against Palace it was. I think we switched off on a free-kick there and we paid the price.
“I think it’s game management. We can talk about the things that happened prior to that situation that can be avoidable. But you know, there are one hundred million decisions to make in one football match and 11 players or 22 players making them 180 beats per minute.”
Rising star Martinelli’s opener on half-time was his ninth in 20 games this season. But before you get carried away, it was only the 19-yearold’s second in 13. He is too young to shoulder a burden that should be carried by his more senior team-mates.