Newcastle United picked up a massive three points away in the capital on Monday night as they beat West Ham United 1-0. It was a tough watch at times but United got the job done to shift the mood music on Tyneside at the start of a huge week.
Bruno Guimaraes scored the only goal of the game in the second half from a Harvey Barnes clip into the box from the left side.
Here are our five key takeaways from the game:
1. **Good between the boxes, awful in them (in the main)**
Epitomised more in the first half, but United were decent between both boxes with clean touches and good passing but were generally poor in both boxes with shoddy finishing and shaky defending.
The second half included similar levels of control but yielded one chance which Bruno stuck away, as West Ham picked up the toothless mantel.
A win is a win, but we will have to play so much better to win the game next weekend. And I’m sorry to say it, but I fear for that back four against Liverpool at Wembley. Thankfully, United got it right on Monday night, and now have a clear week to prepare whilst Liverpool play PSG on Tuesday.
1. **Rusty Barnes, but he did ok**
The spotlight was always going to be on the £38m man as Gordon’s stupidity last weekend has laid out the red carpet for Barnes to start the cup final next weekend.
He played well on the night, picked up an assist, had a couple of decent shots at goal in the first half, forcing a save from Areola from one, but, overall, everything was either slightly too slow, or slightly wayward. He ran hard at times and looked lazy at others.
At least he looked dangerous-ish but we will certainly need him to step up to higher quality level over the next couple of games in Gordon’s absence.
A lot of United’s play on the night broke down on the left side as they tried to bed in a new partnership with Tino and Barnes replacing the injured Hall and suspended Gordon.
Tino constantly having to cut back onto his right foot when in attacking positions killed a lot of momentum in attacking phases down that side, and Barnes was still finding his feet on his return.
But, put it this way, if Tino was called Miguel Almiron and Tino was cutting back as much as Miggy used to, he’d be getting absolutely slaughtered by elements of the fanbase. He is a right-back filling in down the left, but it was a glaring issue in Hall’s absence each time we attacked down that side.
Tonali was excellent in the midfield, winning nine out of nine duels, but captain Bruno stepped up on the night in a tight game to score the only goal. It was scrappy, it was low quality, but it is vital as we had to respond to a set of unfavourable results over the weekend.
Bruno’s passing into the final third was excellent in the night, with 22 successful passes, and he won several important fouls and slowed the game down and sped it up when required.
Additionally, the last match where we were hanging on with seconds to go in the capital was against Palace when we threw away two points late on, so it was very pleasing to see the lads hold on to all three and send us back up into 6th and only two points off Chelsea in 4th, and Bruno was integral to that.
The Brazilian has been quiet as of late and looking a little jaded, so it was just good to see him play well and effect a game.
Did you know Newcastle are in a cup final next weekend? Well, the Sky commentators certainly wanted you to know as he mentioned it on a thousand and one occasions.
But that isn’t the point really is it. We all know what’s at stake next weekend. Hopefully the lads can prepare well this week and stay as injury free as they can because the squad is creaking at the seams as it is.
For me, Eddie Howe deserves tangible proof of all he’s achieved so far at United. I hope that he can deliver it next Sunday.
Keep the faith. HWTL