Timid Magpies not Boxing very clever
OUT of the ashes of despair came predictable further hurt.
Having on three successive occasions faced clubs who were down in the Championship last season - Leeds, Fulham and Brentford - without winning once, a beleaguered Steve Bruce knew what was coming his way.
Manchester City may not be what they were when titles were theirs for the taking but they are not too shabby.
Maybe it is a tale of two Citys - then and now - but they still won in a canter.
Mind, the way performances as well as results have been going for Newcastle, Bruce ended up claiming a 2-0 defeat as a moral victory!
Baldrick used to tell Blackadder he “had a cunning plan.”
Bruce’s appeared to be the predictable, anticipated one. The only one available to him in his eyes - damage limitation.
Revert to a back five with Isaac Hayden shielding immediately in front, something he made even more obvious by sacrificing top scorer Callum Wilson to give him a rest from the loneliness of the long-distance runner up top. Then pray.
With City as mean as Scrooge at the back and no Wilson to at least occupy them there was only ever going to be one winner.
The Blues have now conceded a mere two goals in their last 10 games while United were without a player on the field with more than one league goal. Those two facts tell us everything.
The Mags’ Boxing Day punching power was neatly summed up when Joelinton was subbed by Andy Carroll.
That United conceded only twice had much to do with the fact by their standards City themselves have become goalshy.
Top scorers in the division for the past three seasons, the blue half of Manchester had scored only 19 times in 13 PL games before the Mags hit town.
A wounded Sergio Aguero is not the Shearerlike ruthless finisher he once was and Jesus is not around to become City’s saviour this Christmas, which adds up to their main problem. They are no longer a relentless goal machine.
Pep Guardiola can still weigh in with Raheem Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne, two thoroughbreds who can strike apprehension into the most timid, but while it means City continue to dominate the ball they no longer put teams out of their misery nor play at the relentless pace of their title-winning seasons.
So Newcastle were able to keep the score respectable, though once Ilkay Gundogan notched the opener after only quarter of an hour the game was over as a contest.
Sterling had mesmerised up to five United defenders before rolling the ball to a waiting scorer.
City’s second was a gift which ought never to be offered to such distinguished opposition.
First Miggy Almiron was weakly pushed off the ball and then Federico Fernandez cleared straight to the feet of Ferran Torres who disdainfully whipped the ball into the back of the net. City ought to have scored more. De Bruyne and John Stones missed absolute sitters, Bernardo Silva struck a post and the ever reliable Karl Darlow pulled off a great save from Aguero as well as two others.
When the little Argentinean came on his 13-minute cameo performance showed exactly what City without a genuine line leader have been missing.
Had he been fully fit and firing for 90 minutes United would have been in dreadful trouble.
Bruce hardly helped his own cause prematch by talking of the ‘histrionics’ of Newcastle fans. What did he expect when his team had failed to overcome 10-man Fulham and a Championship side who rested half their stars yet still won?
A ‘respectable’ defeat was never coming to wipe away such vivid memories.
There is no hiding place for him or his players and the banana skin which was always waiting after League Cup humiliation remains as big as ever - champions Liverpool then Leicester, and finally an FA Cup tie at a rejuvenated Arsenal. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
United are in desperate need another of Baldrick’s cunning plans.
One that works.