[Albion] I'm a Newcastle fan and

[NUFC1]

Good to see that others see that too...

How can you not!? In recent weeks, the Alexander-Arnold handball at Leeds was the first. I know they won 1-6 in the end, but the first goal is always crucial. It was much more of a handball than Wilson at Brentford and certainly Mitoma at Spurs, but wasn't even checked by VAR. Then Thiago in the 89th minute away to West Ham - a pen all day and definitely at the other end of the pitch. Tight offsides always go in their favour (check out Isak at Anfield in August which would have put us 2-0 up). The penalty against Fulham was also very borderline and doubt it would have been given if it was Van Dijk on Cairney for example.

If De Zerbi or Howe celebrated in the face of an official would they be on the touchline the following week? Hell no. Ultimately refs/PGMOL are terrified of Klopp like they were with Fergie, so they will always get the rub of the green. It's shocking tbh.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Now onto Thursday. I Genuinely can see you winning. The atmosphere will be rocking but as long as you can manage the first 20 you'll win, or at very worst get a draw. This isn't some reverse psychology or anything like that, I just think it's a poor match up for us in terms of styles. We aren't the second coming of Pulis/Stoke that the media will have you believe, in fact we play decent football that requires high energy. Unfortunately the players have looked a bit leggy recently. We didn't play badly against Arsenal, just beaten by quality. On another day it could have been a draw. Leeds we did look very leggy and we are missing Longstaff who is crucial to our press and freeing up Bruno, who is by far our best player. If you can stop him, you stop us (6 games without him in 22/23, 0 wins!). I think the Champions League will fall away if we lose to you, which on the face of it isn't terrible as we would have snapped your hands off in August for any European competition. It would definitely sting now though.

We generally start lightening fast in home games . We hit the post and got a (rightly overturned) penalty against Arsenal within the first 10, we should have been 2-0 up against West Ham (one marginal offside) within the first 5 minutes, Man U we had chance after chance early on only to eventually score 2 in the final quarter, and everyone seen what happened in the Spurs game. The Man U game could have quite easily been a similar scoreline . If you can manage that initial 20 minute period you should go on to get a result. It should be a belter game!

This is roughly how I see it. If we can get through the opening period level we're in with a decent chance of a result. It's a big if though, we could be several goals down by then if our ball retention in and around our box isn't spot on. If we defend like we did against Everton we'll be half a dozen down by the 20th minute.

Get through that period level and we should start posing you some serious questions. We'll always be susceptible to the break though.

 

[PHCgull]

How can you not!? In recent weeks, the Alexander-Arnold handball at Leeds was the first. I know they won 1-6 in the end, but the first goal is always crucial. It was much more of a handball than Wilson at Brentford and certainly Mitoma at Spurs, but wasn't even checked by VAR. Then Thiago in the 89th minute away to West Ham - a pen all day and definitely at the other end of the pitch. Tight offsides always go in their favour (check out Isak at Anfield in August which would have put us 2-0 up). The penalty against Fulham was also very borderline and doubt it would have been given if it was Van Dijk on Cairney for example.

If De Zerbi or Howe celebrated in the face of an official would they be on the touchline the following week? Hell no. Ultimately refs/PGMOL are terrified of Klopp like they were with Fergie, so they will always get the rub of the green. It's shocking tbh.

i thought at the time of our spurs debacle that the biggest beneficiaries of that catalogue of spurious mis-arbitrations were Liverpool... 3 points for us that day would have really left them short of the CL places at the time, as it was since then they have had the confidence shot back into them with the benefit of all the other things that have "gone their way".

Ultimately the PL/FA would have faced too much pressure if both chelsea and liverpool missed out on europe for season (no one really cares about spurs do they?)

the super league monster would be coming back with a vengeance and the US owners' cabal would probably be backing it...