Playing the numbers game | OneFootball

The numbers game, a form of illegal gambling popular in American cities for more than 100 years and glamorised by Hollywood, is something best avoided.

Gambling, ghettoes and gangsters are rarely a healthy combination.

We all know betting nearly always ends in disappointment, except for the bookies.

It can be an addictive and damaging pursuit, often with serious consequences.

The distant prospect of gold at the end of the rainbow has a magnetic appeal for many, almost as magnetic as the annoyingly catchy Lucky Number, that new wave classic from the 1970s by Lene Lovich.

All together now: “Ah-dee, ah-dee, ah-dee, ah-dee Ah-dee, ah-dee, ah-dee, ah . . .”

For Newcastle United fans, some numbers resonate more than others.

My current favourite is not one but 56, the number of years between the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup win and our glorious victory at Wembley two months ago.

Fifty-six also just happens to be the number of days between the League Cup final and what transpired at St James’ Park yesterday, when Chelsea, for all their possession, did little to threaten Nick Pope’s goal. Spooky or what? Cue the theme music from X Files.

Having disposed of Chelsea, United now have second place in the Premier League firmly in their sights. Arsenal, predictably, failed to win at Anfield and we will go to London next Sunday only two points behind the Woolwich with two games to play.

Old Sourface will have plenty to bemoan even before kick-off. Selectorial problems need to be solved.

Secret agent Mikel Merino, once a resident in the parish of St James’, has been doing sterling work for Arteta in recent weeks, masquerading as a striker to good effect.

On second thoughts, Merino’s work has been more than sterling, in all senses of the phrase. Raheem Sterling is only one of the failures acquired by Arsenal whose job is to stick the ball in the net.

In the bizarre version of the world according to Arteta, of course, scoring goals at one end and preventing them at the other is not the name of the game.

There’s much more to football than that, apparently. Which is why you can be as good as any team in the Champions League, even though you have been beaten home and away in the semi-final. Yes, 100% he is convinced his specialists in winning nothing have not been bettered.

Equally, you deserve to be Premier League champions not once but twice, because the total of points you amassed last season and in 2022-23 was higher than the number Liverpool needed to win the title this season. Then there’s the ball, the match officials, the laws of the game, the weather. The list of Arteta excuses is seemingly endless.

Perhaps something has been lost in translation, which would make my implied criticism a desgracia . . . An entirely different meaning from the English “disgrace”, of course. At least, that’s what the football authorities decided after Arteta’s outburst at St James’ Park last season.

Words and numbers, eh? Here are a few more to make you think.

With two Premier League matches left for every team this season, United are only two points behind the Woolwich. Two plus two equals four. A win in north London next Sunday would be our fourth victory of the campaign against one of my least-favourite outfits. It would lift us up where we belong, one point above them.

Which brings us back to Senor Merino. At Anfield he became the latest Arsenal player to be dismissed this season. Not for a straight red, against which his club could have appealed. He was sent for an early bath after two yellow cards. No chance of revoking this suspension.

The stand-in striker will have to stand down when United head south. Who will take his place? Sterling, perhaps. Or Nwaneri. Or Nathan Jerome Chatoyer Butler-Oyedeji. So far, the 22-year-old forward has made one substitute appearance for the Woolwich. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

They might also be without Rice, who was unable to train before yesterday’s match at Anfield because of injury. Not that you will hear Arteta complain his season has been ruined by too many players spending too long in the treatment room. No, he will accept his fate with the usual equanimity and good grace we have all come to know and admire.

Would three points for United at the Emirates be enough, after the past weekend’s results, to secure a place at the top table of European competitions? Mathematically, not quite. If Man City, Chelsea and Villa each took six points from their final two games, if Arsenal won their final match, if we lost our final encounter at home to Everton, we could be pushed from second place all the way down to sixth. However, with only two rounds of Premier League matches to go, Aston Villa are also 16 goals worse off with Newcastle United when it comes to goal difference.

In previous years, under previous regimes, that series of setbacks would be a distinct possibility in the minds of many United supporters. A lifetime of near-misses and relegations, an empty trophy cabinet; all these disappointments have left a few scars.

This, though, is a different world, one in which we are League Cup winners, after a 56-year trophy drought (apart from a couple of second-tier titles and some minor continental success).

Where once we expected to fall, now the outlook is altogether more positive. Winning is a wonderful habit to acquire.

Perhaps this is the greatest achievement so far of Eddie Howe’s management. Habitual failings have been replaced by repeated success, which has changed the identity of the club, the team and the supporters.

I’m not the only one who thinks six points from our two remaining games is a reasonable shout. The power of positive thinking should not be underestimated.

The Wembley win, 56 years after our Fairs Cup triumph, also put to bed a 70-year wait for a proper domestic cup. Subtract 56 from 70 and you are left with 14.

When the final whistle was blown yesterday, there were 14 days left of this momentous campaign. Two more wins in the next 14 days . . . sometimes the numbers game is fun to play.