Saturday 5 November 2011

Can Newcastle be the best of the rest?



Newcastle's 2-1 win over Everton on Saturday extended their unbeaten run this season and yet again disproved the opinions of many, who thought we might come unstuck against the Toffees. United currently sit in 2nd place in the league, although that will soon become 3rd, assuming Manchester United get an expected win against the great unwashed. Since 4 or 5 games in, so called pundits have tipped our unbeaten streak to come to an end, but so far we have proved them all wrong, managing over a quarter of the season without tasting defeat. The question is though, just how far can Newcastle go?

For a few weeks now, people have beginning to sit up and take notice of Newcastle. Our early season form surprised many, but led to most suggesting we 'hadn't played anyone yet'. Despite this being highly insulting to the teams we have played, I feel it is incorrect. Last season Newcastle finished 12th. Teams that finished around us include Stoke, West Brom, Sunderland, Fulham and Everton. So far from those teams we have beaten all of these, except West Brom who were are yet to play. What I'm triying to say is that for me, it doesn't matter that we haven't played 'anyone' as the teams we need to beat are the ones who were in and around us last year. If we do this, which we have, then it shows a marked improvement on last year, and can only point to a higher finishing position come May.

Since our win over Stoke last week, the experts have started to take note. Stoke hadn't lost at the Britannia all season, so for Newcastle to go there and win so comfortably was a warning to others to take United seriously. People are now beginning to wonder if we could finish in the top four, having occupied a Champions League spot for five or 6 weeks. For me, Newcastle won't finish fourth. I don't want to put a dampener on it, but we simply don't have as much strength in depth that the bigger teams have. Take City for example. Their bench for the 6-1 annihilation of rivals United was as follows: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Kolarov, K Toure, Nasri, De Jong, Dzeko. Apart from 'keeper Pantilimon, and perhaps Zabaleta, I would argue that all 5 other players would walk into every team in the league. It's the same for the other teams at the right end of the League. Chelsea, Manchester United  and Tottenham all arguably have enough quality players to field 2 or 3 teams capable of doing well in the Premier League. Newcastle don't really have this luxury. An injury to someone such as Demba Ba, or Coloccini and very suddenly our team is heavily weakened.

I do feel however, that Newcastle can be the best of the rest. Take off say, both Manchester clubs and Chelsea, and I feel Newcastle can finish in the chasing pack slightly behind them, with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. Anywhere between 4th and 8th is a realistic aim for us. Even if you say that the 6 mentioned teams finish above us, that leaves us in 7th; hardly a bad position. If we are to do that, we need to beat the teams below us, which is when the suggestion that we haven't played anyone again is shown to be rubbish. Assuming finishing top 6 is beyond us, then the team we need to be beating to finish 7th are the teams who will finish 8th downwards, ie; Stoke, Fulham, Everton, Sunderland, Blackburn, Wolves, Wigan, QPR; all of whom we have taken points off. If you look at it that way, we have played 'someone'. We have played the most important games. The mentioned teams will also get beaten more often than not against the likes of Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, etc, so even if we do lose our first game in a fortnight's time at City, it doesn't matter too much. We aren't competing against City, we are competing against the teams who will be the best of the rest, who hopefully come May, we will be leading.

HWTL

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