Eddie Howe watched on as his Newcastle United team drew 2-2 with Chelsea.
At the early Saturday kick-off, United took a 2-0 lead within the first twenty minutes and that was the lead at half time. However, it could and should have been at least double that lead at halftime, as Newcastle failed to capitalize on other big opportunities.
Having not conceded a kick in the first half and having been absolutely battered by United, Chelsea came out of nowhere back into the game with a free kick from over thirty yards that Aaron Ramsdale certainly should have saved.
With 24 minutes left of the 90, a long ball from the Chelsea keeper somehow made the score 2-2. Malick Thiaw got everything wrong and then also slipped, leaving Joao Pedro with a clear path to goal and finishing past Ramsdale.
Apart from their two goals, while Chelsea improved in the second half, it was still Newcastle who had the better chances by far.
After the match, Eddie Howe pointed out another big factor that disappointed him and his team in this match, when Newcastle United were denied the clearest penalty when leading 2-1, when Chalobah bumped into Anthony Gordon and made no attempt to play the ball, hitting the Newcastle player with such force that he ended up off the pitch…
“Anywhere on the pitch that is a blatant free kick. When it went to VAR I thought: ‘This is being overturned, it’s a clear mistake’. It’s as clear a punishment as I’ve seen. The defender focuses only on Anthony [Gordon]. They said it’s a foreclosure, but I disagree with that analysis. I’m really disappointed that that wasn’t given.”
Eddie Howe was of course absolutely right in what he said.
However, this was all done in his usual subdued, quiet, respectful manner. No tirades and rants about injustice.
The point is just as well: Eddie Howe could have gone on and probably listed the appalling list of astonishing injustices done to Newcastle United in this match by the match officials.
It was absolutely unbelievable how many match-changing decisions the cowardly, incompetent referee Andy Madley and VAR Peter Bankes failed to give to Newcastle United.
It was actually comical, just not in a funny way.
Three penalties were absolutely clear and none were given except Gordon’s. Eddie Howe could (and should) have gone into detail about Fofana’s handball in the first half, when Reece James picked out Harvey Barnes in the penalty area while only playing the man and never touching the ball. Then the two blatant red cards missed, Garnachoo over the top with studs on Jacob Ramsey’s shin without any attempt to go for the ball, then Reece James in the closing stages when he was the last man and Harvey Barnes pulled back just outside the penalty area.
This is the problem with Eddie Howe. The fact that he doesn’t go berserk after the final whistle and allows this catalog of abhorrent injustices to hit the headlines holds true in the post-match analysis against Newcastle United.
I can guarantee that if this had been Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool on the receiving end, we would never have heard the last of it. Enzo Maresca, Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot would all have been talking about nothing else, they would have ranted at length about everything that disappointed them, even things that didn’t actually happen, AND the media would have been absolutely all over it. Their clubs would have demanded answers, publicly called out the match officials, written to Howard Webb and so on.
All the headlines would be about how Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool had been robbed, how this was all a shame, a conspiracy and so on.
Instead the headlines were all about ‘Brilliant Chelsea fight’ and so on, the fact that Newcastle United were still far and away the better team AND most importantly, how they had been absolutely bamboozled by the match officials, was limited to a small mention about Eddie Howe mentioning Anthony Gordon’s (non-)decision. Such was indeed the weak coverage of Madley and Bankes’ shocking performance; the Newcastle vs Chelsea match wasn’t even the referees’ main story on Sky Sports as Dermot Gallagher discusses controversial decisions. He did eventually come to our match, but even then only the Gordon penalty incident was discussed, and while he obviously agreed that it was shocking that Newcastle didn’t get a penalty, that was it. Without mentioning all the other shocking moments that went against NUFC.
It is a major weakness in our football media. It’s like teachers pandering to the most annoying, worst-behaved child; the football media does the same with people like Slot, Maresca and Arteta.
Why didn’t national journalists make a big deal of this worst ever performance during the Newcastle vs Chelsea match officials?
They choose not to and the fact is that if Eddie Howe and Newcastle United behaved the way these other managers and clubs do when they receive even a slight injustice, they might well have beaten the game.
Instead, it was just lazy reporting, based on the two goals Chelsea scored, to come back and draw.
The point is though…
All this being said.
I wouldn’t trade Eddie Howe for any of that, both as a manager and especially when it comes to their behavior before, during and after games.
I think it’s great that, like Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby before him, we have a manager in Eddie Howe who is fair, who conducts himself in a fair and respectful manner, who doesn’t embarrass himself with his behavior and claims of injustice that doesn’t exist, and who doesn’t make excuses to distract from the focus on himself and the way his team has performed.
The frustration is enormous after what we saw on Saturday and the media’s complete failure to hold Andy Madley and Peter Bankes to account is beyond shameful.
Part of me wishes Eddie Howe had liked Mikel Arteta’s embarrassment on this occasion. In reality, though, the much bigger part of me is still so grateful that in Eddie Howe we have a manager who shows dignity and integrity in everything thrown at him, good and bad.
#big #problem #Eddie #Howe