Fulham 3- 1 Newcastle was the game that really incited panic amongst the Toon Army and announced serial 'mid-tablers' such as the Cottagers, Bournemouth and Brighton as a threat to the fairly settled 'Top 8' regulars.
'The Super League 6' had only really faced competition from ultimate underdogs Leicester in the last decade or so. Newcastle and Aston Villa have since disrupted that stranglehold with ambitious owners and some eye-catching transfers, but the aforementioned trio are showing you can do it on a much smaller budget, albeit in Brighton's case, selling the odd £100M player first...
Newcastle have lost to all three of these perceived underdogs this season. Two of them were at home, and Fulham will be arriving hoping to make it three SJP defeats out of three for Newcastle against the up-and-comers.
It's exciting for the league as whole, but worrying for Newcastle. Just as it looked like potential rivals Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur had fallen away, they were replaced by three extremely well-run European hopefuls. Throw high-flying Nottingham Forest into the ring as well, and you have a complete shakeup in the top half of the league.
Unfortunately for Forest, I see them falling away slightly. The underlying metrics don't support the points tally, and eventually these things tend to even themselves out. If Chris Wood stops over-performing his xG quite so remarkably, they're going to struggle, as they did in spectacular fashion against Bournemouth.
Fulham's form has been slightly patchy but they're still a significant threat...
Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth are quite rightly the flavour of the month right now, but Marco Silva has done an unbelievable job under the radar at West London. The Cottagers currently sit 10th but have played some unbelievable football thanks to the rejuvenated careers of Raul Jimenez, Emile Smith-Rowe, Antonee Robinson and Harry Wilson. They enjoy a similar three-pronged threat of attacking midfielders to Bournemouth, with the aforementioned Wilson and Smith-Rowe linking up with Alex Iwobi for interchanging, dynamic and devastating linkup play. Messrs Hall and Livramento couldn't keep up with the direct running and slick cutback play between Antoine Semenyo and Justin Kluivert recently; we need to tread carefully here.
Eye-catching results at Anfield, Stamford Bridge and The City Ground this season will give Fulham confidence on the road, while a win on Saturday would actually take them to within five points of us in the table, whereas a win for Newcastle would effectively end any reasonable chance of Fulham catching us in the race for Europe. We got back on track with the win against Southampton, but as we've seen against West Ham, Brighton and Bournemouth at home this season, there can be no room for complacency.
The week-long interval in between games last week saw a marked improvement in running and energy levels after the Bournemouth collapse; and Newcastle's commanding 3-1 lead early in the second half saw welcome rests for the likes of Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy. We don't expect much difference in the way of changes for this game, except perhaps the absence of a certain smiling Paraguayan on the bench. Any minutes for Lewis Miley would also be a welcome bonus as he reintegrates himself into the team, and Eddie Howe may give longer cameos off the bench this time due to the League Cup Semi-final next Wednesday.
Not much more to say on this one, we simply need to shake off any ghost of the previous home match and play like we know we can, as we gear up for that crucial decider against Arsenal in the cup.
Howay The Lads!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
25 | 36 | 60 |
2 |
![]() |
25 | 29 | 53 |
3 |
![]() |
25 | 12 | 47 |
4 |
![]() |
25 | 17 | 44 |
5 |
![]() |
25 | 15 | 43 |
6 |
![]() |
25 | 13 | 43 |
7 |
![]() |
25 | 9 | 41 |
8 |
![]() |
25 | 5 | 39 |
9 |
![]() |
25 | -3 | 38 |
10 |
![]() |
25 | 0 | 37 |
11 |
![]() |
25 | 1 | 34 |
12 |
![]() |
25 | 12 | 30 |
13 |
![]() |
25 | -3 | 30 |
14 |
![]() |
25 | -4 | 30 |
15 |
![]() |
25 | -7 | 29 |
16 |
![]() |
25 | -18 | 27 |
17 |
![]() |
25 | -19 | 19 |
18 |
![]() |
25 | -27 | 17 |
19 |
![]() |
25 | -30 | 17 |
20 |
![]() |
25 | -38 | 9 |