It ended Liverpool 4 Newcastle 1.
Before each match, we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives after the match.
An interesting match at Anfield…
Enough to talk about.
On this occasion it is The Armchair Fan.
POSITIVE
First 36 minutes
What a start to the Toon!
For the first 36 minutes we were all above the reigning national champions.
Wave after wave of Newcastle attacks saw Barnes desperately unlucky enough to hit an effort off the post before the dam finally burst and Gordon picked his spot, burying an effort at the Kop end to deservedly put the Toon ahead.
Goal!
The sight of the traveling Toon Army unleashed at Anfield brought hope that more than thirty of the woes in this place were about to be dispelled.
Anthony Gordon hadn’t scored a league goal in open play all season, hopefully this will be the first of many as he replicates his Champions League form and puts us ahead.
Depth of the squad
In the last two games, Eddie Howe has become a little more experimental with his team selection and substitutes.
Willock and Ramsey both had a great game in midweek and the return of Burn and Osula is very welcome.
Hopefully the increase in options will allow us to continue fighting on all four fronts.
NEGATIVES
Result
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: football is a results business and no amount of ‘we played well for 36 minutes’ is going to change that.
The fact is that we were on the wrong side of a 4-1 situation.
This was a poor result, which also put a dent in our goal difference.
Giving away leads
What do Arsenal, West Ham, Brentford, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool have in common?
They have all come from behind to take something away from NUFC this season.
It’s criminal to be leading in all six of these games and taking just two points from a potential eighteen.
The fact that we are only seven points away from the top four means that this trait is likely to cost us a lot of money at the end of the season.
Road shape
Just two Premier League wins from twelve consecutive games is nowhere near good enough and is a recipe for languishing in mid-table for the rest of the season.
Home form won’t save us and with our next three away league games coming up at Spurs, Man City and Chelsea, it would take a brave person to predict a rise in points-picking on our travels any time soon.
#positive #negative #points #Liverpool #Newcastle