The Good, The Bad, and The Average #27: NUFC player ratings vs. Wolves (h) [PL21]

Are we dreaming or is this real life? Newcastle United made it an astonishing nine wins in succession with a 3-0 beating of Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James' Park on Wednesday evening.

Eddie Howe matched a feat achieved by only Kevin Keegan and Rafa Benítez before him, which is remarkable when you consider how things looked less than six weeks ago after we lost 4-2 away at Brentford.

Alexander Isak scored another two goals—eclipsing Alan Shearer and Joe Willock in becoming the first man to score in eight consecutive Premier League games—and unselfishly set up Anthony Gordon for the third.

No guesses for who our Man of the Match will be, then, but there were other strong performances in the XI, with only one of our mainstays disappointing in what was a bit of a strange match.

Here's how we scored it...

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Good

Alexander Isak is untouchable at the moment, isn't he? The Swede shrugged off some pre-match doubts about his fitness with another razor-sharp performance leading the line, which yielded him a further two goals and an assist. He's now just one behind Erling Haaland and three behind Mohamed Salah in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot. If he can stay fit, he'll win it.

Birthday boy Martin Dúbravka didn't have as quiet a match as he has done since being restored to the side in the absence of Nick Pope and a couple of the saves he made were genuinely world-class. It thankfully seems like he'll be going nowhere this month and even when Pope is back to fitness the Slovakian has made enough of an argument to keep his place between the sticks.

Just ahead of him, Sven Botman and Dan Burn again formed an unconventional centre-back duo but dealt well with pretty much everything Wolves threw at us. This was Botman's best game since returning and we greatly enjoyed some of Burn's raids forwards in the second half. We love Fabian Schär—as you might've noticed if you're a regular reader—but he may not get a recall.

Outside of that giant duo, the former Chelsea youngsters Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall again performed well in the full-back roles. Tino continues to frustrate with his lack of decisiveness in the final third, but he was outstanding defensively, while Hall had a typically tidy game.

Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães weren't at their sparkling best but still played huge parts in the victory. Tonali's engine is ridiculous—he was still sprinting in added time—and his passing was sharp and accurate, while Bruno came up big when we needed him to with the pass to pick out Isak for the second.

It was a similar story for Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon out wide, with Murphy looking our most dangerous attacking outlet during his time on the pitch but failing to connect with a pass or cross to earn himself an assist. Gordon's end product was quite poor, but it's hard to ignore yet another key goal from him.

Eddie Howe stands one match away from putting himself ahead of Keegan and Benítez in the club's record books. He'll be desperate to finally get one over on his old club Bournemouth this weekend to earn a tenth successive victory in all competitions. Hopefully, the players will be even more desperate to do it for him!

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Bad

What a pleasure to have an empty 'Bad' section. We think this might be the first time!

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Average

As silly as it might've seemed if said at the beginning of the season or any point in the last two years, Joelinton might find himself under threat as a starter soon. He was sloppy again last night and central midfield isn't an area you can afford to be sloppy in. He was far from bad, however, and deserves big credit for his pass through to Isak in the build to the third goal.

Miguel Almirón, Joe Willock, and Will Osula were all given 20 minutes at the end with the game over as a contest and did alright without setting the world alight. This might've been Miggy's last hurrah at Gallowgate, and as with the many other appearances before it, there was no lack of appetite or effort on show. We're sure you're as sick of him as we are, but he's played his part.

Lewis Miley and Kieran Trippier didn't get as many minutes as the other three substitutes, but Miley deserves credit for 10/10 pass completions and a couple of decent defensive interventions. We're still of the opinion that Trippier's our best right-back, but he's clearly out of favour at the moment for whatever reason...

This isn't going to sound like a compliment, even though it's meant as one, but Wolverhampton Wanderers were nowhere near as bad as we were expecting them to be. They've got a lot of technically excellent players, seem to have good speed throughout the team, and Emmanuel Agbadou looks like a quality signing. We're very glad Matheus Cunha didn't start, mind!

As for match referee Darren England, he can be content in the knowledge that he was absolutely bang average for the second time when officiating us this season. As we've said before, this is really all we ask and expect from officiating in this country...

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Breakdown

This wasn't a vintage display from the black and whites, but we did more than enough to get the job done.

The XI

Martin Dúbravka – 8

Tino Livramento – 7 (off 85')

Sven Botman – 8

Dan Burn – 8

Lewis Hall – 7

Bruno Guimarães – 8

Sandro Tonali – 7

Joelinton – 6 (off 83')

Jacob Murphy – 8 (off 78')

Alexander Isak – 9 ⭐️ (off 78')

Anthony Gordon – 8 (off 78')

The Subs

Miguel Almirón – 6 (on 78')

Joe Willock – 6 (on 78')

Will Osula – 6 (on 78')

Lewis Miley – 6 (on 83')

Kieran Trippier – 6 (on 85')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 8

The Opposition

Wolves – 6

The Ref

Darren England – 6

Getty Images

The Next

It's a very quick turnaround to our next game, with Bournemouth due at Gallowgate on Saturday afternoon for a 12.30 p.m. (GMT) kick-off that will again be broadcast live on TNT Sports.

No Newcastle United manager has ever won 10 successive matches across all competitions before, but this Newcastle United manager also hasn't ever beaten Bournemouth since leaving them...

We'd still fancy us to do it with the form we're in, but Andoni Iraola is a quality coach who has built a very dangerous side, so we'll be taking absolutely nothing for granted.

Howay the lads!