Newcastle United fans needing reality check | OneFootball

As Newcastle United fans, it was gutting when that second Romero goal for Spurs went in.

It is amazing just how very differently you feel about picking up a point when you have been leading, compared to if you were trailing.

Come back and get a draw and it can feel like a win, happens the other way and it can feel like a defeat.

When the final goal hits the back of the net deep into added time, then this makes it feel so much better/worse.

No wonder so many Newcastle United fans left St James’ Park in such a bad mood. If only…

As for Spurs fans, not only did they get that special feeling of coming back and grabbing a draw at the very end of this match. They did this after having been so lucky to be still in the game by that point.

Eddie Howe’s team weren’t at their best BUT yet they were still by a distance the better team, especially when it came to creating good chances to score. Spurs fans will have gone home trying to convince themselves that they deserved a point, the reality of course is that our cockney mates were extremely lucky not to lose by at least a couple of goals, just like the Carabao Cup match five weeks earlier.

Talking of reality, I think some Newcastle United fans need a bit of a reality check.

What has become obvious in these first four months of the season, is that this is a very tight and competitive Premier League. Arsenal have been the best team, showing consistency. However, apart from them, you aren’t massively surprised if pretty much any of the other teams beats another.

As we go into the weekend games, only five points separate Chelsea on 24 points in fourth and Bournemouth on 19 points in fourteenth.

Newcastle United are thirteenth with 19 points and I know how that of course makes it all the more frustrating in a tight league, that we didn’t see out the win over Spurs. If doing so, United would have been top half and other three points off fourth, with Burnley (lost their last five PL matches) at home on Saturday.

We can’t though let this setback on Tuesday deflect us from the bigger reality, which is that after the November international break, Newcastle United look a far far better team.

The performances against Everton and Man City were excellent AND the returns of Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento to the starting eleven, remind us of just how much of a better team they make NUFC look, when they are both fully fit and available.

As I said earlier, Newcastle weren’t at their very best against a defensive Spurs side desperate not to lose again, but at the same time we played decent and despite not hitting the heights, created more than enough chances to have won comfortably.

If Newcastle United can keep on playing to the levels across these last three Premier League matches, it will be exciting times ahead.

This is how many points each of the Premier League teams have picked up since the international break:

9 Aston Villa 7 Newcastle United, Arsenal 6 Man City, Everton, Brighton, Palace, Forest 4 Chelsea, Man U, Sunderland, Liverpool 3 Fulham, Brentford, Leeds 2 West Ham 1 Spurs, Bournemouth 0 Burnley, Wolves

As you can see, Villa the only ones to win all three PL matches, Arsenal the only other one to match Newcastle’s seven points.

Factor in as well that this was a tough set of fixtures, evidenced by the fact that both Everton and Man City have both won their other two matches.

It isn’t a completely straight line of progression but I think we have seen more than enough in these recent games, especially if now Wissa is shortly set to join the party and if what we saw from Anthony Gordon in his brilliant cameo on Tuesday night does suggest he is set to be back on form and at his flying best.

Hopefully get the likes of Trippier, Botman, Pope and Osula back as well, then Newcastle United will start to have a look of a squad that can compete on all fronts. Whist also hoping that it is just a knock for Tonali after Spurs kicked him off the pitch on Tuesday night.

This season is still a huge opportunity in the Premier League, as shown by just how tight the league table is. United also just one step away from yet another Carabao Cup semi-final and possibly two wins from the last three Champions League games away from top eight and automatic progression to the knockout stages.

Everything to play for and lets all dust worselves doon and make sure that we do everything to ensure a win against Burnley gets the show really back on track, with this clear upward curve of recent performances.