Newcastle United recorded just one shot over the entire game against Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon and despite that one shot not being on target, the Magpies almost stole a win at Selhurst Park.
Marc Guehi bundled in an Anthony Gordon cross to give Newcastle an undeserved lead on 53 minutes and it took the Eagles until four minutes into second-half stoppage time to get their equaliser when Daniel Munoz beat Nick Pope at his near post.
Much like Monday night's defeat to West Ham, Newcastle offered absolutely nothing going forward, in fact, in that regard, they were much worse than they were against the Hammers. Only some top-class defending by Dan Burn and some quality saves from Nick Pope kept Newcastle in the game against Palace.
Once again, though, Eddie Howe seemingly refused to accept reality in his press conference after the game, trying once again to try and put a positive spin on things.
We called Howe out for trying to be positive on Monday and he had a lot more to be positive about then than he did after today's performance.
It's getting to a point now where the fans are going to turn against him because he's starting to sound far too delusional.
Thankfully, Howe did acknowledge the lack of creativity up front, because if he'd not addressed that after a game in which we created no chances (we still don't recall that alleged one shot we had) then we'd be very worried about his sanity.
Speaking to the press after the game (via The Independent) Howe said it feels like a lack of confidence that's holding his side back.
"Killer blow at the end. We defended really well for the majority of the game and Nick Pope had important saves to make.
“When you come here you know you’re going to be examined in lots of different ways. We stood up to that really well until the end. It’s an absolutely devastating blow for us because we thought we were there.
“There was a lot of good from us in the first two thirds but nothing in the final third. We look a little bit low on confidence and we were lacking a cutting edge up front.”
Unfortunately, Howe doesn't have long to address the problem with a tough test to come midweek with Liverpool coming to St James' Park on Wednesday for their practically guaranteed three points. Oh joy!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |