Howe sack talk grows louder as Magpies stumble into break looking down, not up
With a long international break ahead of us, we must now wonder when Newcastle and Eddie Howe will take their turn in the spotlight of the crisis club.
This was another bleak day away from the North East for the Toon Army, as they extended their Premier League winless streak away from St James’ Park to as far back as April.
For the second weekend in a row, they took a 1-0 lead in London but were defeated 3-1.
Newcastle’s performance in the second half was awful, and Brentford took complete control to produce well-earned victories.
Given the extent of the congestion among the teams behind Arsenal, actual placements in the currently ridiculous Premier League table can be misleading and don’t always represent much.
Despite being in 13th place, Everton is only four points outside of the top four. Howe and Newcastle’s issue is that they run the risk of completely falling behind this horde of mediocrity after this most recent devastating loss.
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Even though they are only one spot below Everton, their three-point deficit is the largest in the league, second only to that between first and second.
With only a slim advantage over the rebounding banterholics of West Ham and Nottingham Forest, Newcastle is keeping company with your Fulhams, your Leeds and the Burnleys of this world.
Howe’s team is now closer to the bottom three than Everton. It’s an issue. And much as at the London Stadium, this was another subdued and shy effort away from home.
To be fair, Newcastle’s one truly impressive moment came when Harvey Barnes maintained his cool to build the ideal shooting opportunity before blasting his effort beyond Caoimhin Kelleher. The first half was a cagey affair.
However, the second half quickly seemed inevitable. Brentford dominated Newcastle, who produced very nothing. In keeping with the prophecy, Michael Kayode’s long throw scored the goal.
We’ll say it again, Kayode’s distance isn’t very noteworthy, but his Delapesque trajectory is. Throw-ins to the near post can be made by any competent full-back; the key is to be able to fire them in there. Kayode is also quite good at it.
Even Newcastle’s formidable defence was insufficient, as Sven Botman was only able to obstruct Nick Pope’s path and reroute the ball to an appreciative Kevin Schade.
After that, things did become a little ridiculous for a while, but Dan Burn vs. Dango Ouattara was unquestionably the pivotal match, and the winner was obvious. It wasn’t Newcastle’s midweek hero.
Burn and Newcastle were in trouble as soon as he was booked for dragging Ouattara down after being all too easily twisted. Brentford continued to poke at that scab until the required thing happened.
Ouattara paid a high price for making a great meal out of what was likely a foul by Burn that, had Stuart Attwell or VAR seen it differently, would have resulted in a penalty and a red card.
Rather, Brentford’s sense of simmering injustice was completely dispelled, and Ouattara received a booking for his overreaction.
When the same two players faced up again ten minutes later, Burn was once again late and struggling, and this time the penalty and red card were applied appropriately.
Nobody seemed to be too concerned about the fact that it was far less of a foul than the first penalty.
Although officiating elite sports is impossible, the final result of the two incidents—one penalty, one red card, and one yellow card for simulation seemed to be an unintentionally acceptable conclusion. Well done, lads.
After that, Newcastle performed passably with ten men, scoring more goals than they had in the first thirty minutes of the second half with a full quota.
However, Botman’s forgettable afternoon came to an end when he failed to notice that Igor Thiago, who had scored the penalty, was behind him in injury time to pounce on a loose ball and end the match while continuing his own excellent season by making the losses of Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa seem insignificant.
Pope’s loss to what appeared to be a concussion following a rough fall from catching a high ball exacerbated Newcastle’s problems; he attempted to play on but made way shortly before the crucial penalty.
If that puts a well-earned England recall in jeopardy, it’s bad luck for him. However, Newcastle and their manager will now have an awkward international break that will be spent gazing uncomfortably down rather than optimistically up, and Man City will not be the ideal visitors immediately following the break.
