Newcastle slip up again and have failed to cash in on a season of unprecedented Big Six weakness | OneFootball

Sometimes the Barclays giveth, and sometimes the Barclays taketh away.

Sometimes the games will be drab and featureless 0-0 draws in the p*ssing rain that don’t really do either team much good but also are not catastrophes.

Wolves continue to look a far better side under Rob Edwards. This, again, was not in any kind of way the performance of a team still in theoretical danger of knocking Derby off their perch as we approach two-thirds distance in the Premier League season.

Their unbeaten run now stretches to five games in all competitions, but on a weekend when Spurs were the only relegation battlers not to pick up any points it’s just another weekend gone without change if there remain any wild thoughts here of a truly spectacular Great Escape.

Only wins will do for that, of course, and that’s going to make goalless home draws a little bit galling against anyone now that it does appear that getting beyond Derby is a formality. They’ve now got eight points; with three more to ink in from April’s visit of a Dr Tottenham now working legit biblical miracles for the sick and needy, that only leaves one point for Wolves to find from the other 15 games.

So… nice to keep the unbeaten run going for another week, and positive signs aplenty in the effervescence of Mateus Mane and another solid defensive performance from a team that has now conceded just two goals in four Premier League games after shipping 39 in the first 18.

But it doesn’t really do much for their season. Which brings us nicely to Newcastle, for whom a draw represents momentum lost rather than maintained and undeniably two points dropped in their bid to remain in the thick of the European question.

This was not a great Newcastle performance. They huffed and puffed but the perspiration was never matched by inspiration, with their best chance a miscued header from Nick Woltemade early on that once again baffled co-commentators who simply haven’t been paying attention to the fact that he is laughably bad in the air and is simply very tall indeed.

He’s a fascinating bundle of contradictions and one of our very favourite panic buys. Newcastle’s summer had reached such a messy state of affairs that they simply had to buy someone regardless of profile, fit, or suitability. But while Woltemade’s general play hasn’t reached the depths of a Gyokeres or a Sesko, the fact he has such a remarkably bad head for a big lad remains one of the season’s best low-key storylines.

There was a spell midway through the second half when it looked like Newcastle were about to seize full control, about to blow Wolves’ doors down and claim a victory that could move them back above Manchester United and into fifth. And then instead of that… they just kind of petered out.

There are more conspicuous crises and despair to be found elsewhere around the Premier League right now, but despite their recent improved results Newcastle remain a curiously disappointing team this season. In a season where five of the disintegrating Big Six have displayed such astonishing vulnerability they simply haven’t been able to move in and capitalise the way Villa have done so well.

We still await compelling evidence that Newcastle can put together two convincing seasons in a row under Eddie Howe. And given the general standard this season, failing to take the next step and secure back-to-back Champions League qualification would be an any Woltemade-header-level big chance missed.