Focus firmly on future off St James’ Park pitch
Newcastle 0 West Brom 1
NEWCASTLE United slumped to a second straight defeat as bottom-ofthe-table West Bromwich Albion took their survival fight down to the final fortnight of the season.
Rafa Benitez’s Magpies passed the 40-point mark and all-but secured survival by defeating Arsenal 2-1 earlier this month, but since then, they have lost 1-0 for two straight matches.
Matt Phillips scored the Baggies’ only goal as the Premier League’s basement boys left St James’ Park with a deserved victory.
Here’s what we learned from a woeful afternoon of football.
The 22-year-old has made a huge impact in the three months he has been on Tyneside with two goals and two assists – as well as a number of exciting a t t a c k i n g displays.
At St J a m e s ’ P a r k , the Brazilian has been particularly effective – playing a crucial role in the Magpies’ much-improved home form since the turn of the year.
However, this was the last match of Kenedy’s loan spell in which the winger is available to play at home, given that the final game of the season is against his parent club Chelsea.
It was not an ideal potential farewell appearance on Tyneside for Kenedy, however, with United struggling to get him into the game.
In the 34th minute, he did show the kind of individual quality which has dragged Newcastle to safety. After Newcastle United’s Islam Slimani argues with Craig Dawson playing a one-two with Ayoze Perez, Kenedy controlled the ball on his chest in the area and then c a s u a l l y prodded a shot past Ben Foster, but agonisingly it only clipped the outside of the post. For the most part, Kenedy was not given the opportunity to showcase his skills in this match. For the final half-hour, Kenedy even switched to left-back as Benitez brought on another winger in Jacob Murphy to try and inject some life into the match.
But Kenedy merely ended the game limping after a challenge from Salomon Rondon, and United fans will hope that does not prevent the winger from featuring during the final three games.
Despite Benitez having made it clear he will ask Chelsea about Kenedy’s potential availability for next season, there is no provision for the winger’s loan deal to be extended.
It is very much a case of ‘wait and see’ at the moment – but there is no doubt the vast majority of Newcastle fans would love to see Kenedy continue as part of the Magpies’ line up next term.
When the Newcastle starting XI was released, there was only one change from the 1-0 defeat at Everton on Monday – and, somewhat surprisingly, it was Islam Slimani who was dropped.
In his place, Dwight Gayle returned to the line-up, as Benitez named the same XI who had won the previous four home matches in succession.
The decision to drop Slimani after his 63-minute display at Goodison Park has only increased the likelihood that United will not pursue a permanent move for the Algeria international this summer.
Against Everton, Slimani worked hard and showed a real willingness to impress, but he was denied service, and most of his endeavour was for little real substantive benefit.
To be fair, Gayle didn’t exactly do much more during the 64 minutes he was on the pitch against West Brom –