Alan Shearer's analysis of Newcastle United's win over Burnley is spot on - 'They got away with it'
Newcastle United moved to within a point of this weekend's opponents, Sunderland, after a 2-1 win over Burnley on Saturday at St James' Park.
It should have been a routine win for Newcastle on Saturday, especially after Burnley went down to 10 men and then gave away a penalty, which made it 2-0 going in at half-time.
But for whatever reason, the Magpies decided to coast rather than press home their one-man advantage. That's not to say that they didn't have any more attempts at goal, but it all just seemed very pedestrian, where we feel they really should have gone through the gears and maybe tried to add some goals into the F column.
Newcastle's inability to take advantage of the situation almost cost them as Jacob Ramsey gave away a stupid penalty in second-half stoppage time, and then Burnley almost equalised with the last move of the game.
Alan Shearer says Newcastle got away with it on Saturday
lan Shearer gave his assessment on the game on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football, and we couldn't agree more with what he said.
“They go 2-0 up with the Anthony Gordon penalty.
“It was a red card and it was a penalty. And then it was, I don’t know, it was all, I guess, a bit easy.
“And then to be fair to Burnley, they did come back. They got a penalty themselves. Right at the death [they nearly equalised]. It was the last touch of the game. Goodness me, Newcastle got away with it.
“They deserved to win the game, Newcastle, but they were very, very nearly punished towards the end of the game.
“But a win is a win. Sets them nicely up for the Champions League in midweek and then Sunderland next week away.”
Eddie Howe needs to restore the killer instinct to the team
Newcastle always seem to struggle against 10 men for whatever reason, but lately they've just not had that killer instinct to finish off games in any situation.
It's something that Eddie Howe needs to address quickly because it's uncharacteristic of his teams. Under Howe, we've always been fairly relentless, wanting more and more goals, but this season that hasn't been the case. Or at least it hasn't felt like it.
Hopefully, the return of Yoane Wissa is going to have a huge impact on how we attack going forward, but he's still a few games away from being match fit so we can't rely on him instantly.
