3-0, on to the next

Another victory, another clean sheet and with Norwich City losing, Newcastle United extended their lead at the top of the table to 3 points over both Brighton and Norwich. We also have a fantastically healthy goal difference to boot. 5 league wins in a row, 13 goals scored, 4 conceded, I am one very, very happy Newcastle fan right now.

Indeed, I ended the last article saying that is a great time to be a Newcastle United fan and yes, there are the usual comments about the league we are in but we can only play who is put in front of us and lets face it, I would rather be in our position than any of the bottom 3 in the Premier League. I’m also very aware that just because we went down, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee wins or an instant promotion back to the Premier League - just look at Aston Villa (and try not to smirk too much). We’re top of the league, we are playing great football, we have Rafa leading the way, we have the league’s top scorer and we are selling out home and away games. So far, this has been a perfect season.

I say perfect but thanks to my numpty mate who managed to lose his match ticket between the car and the ground yesterday, I missed the first goal from Perez. Instead of being in the ground, I was stood at the St. James’ Park Box Office pleading for them to replace his ticket - which they did. Fair play to them, the customer service at the ground is first class!

As for the rest of the game against Ipswich Town, we dominated from start to finish. It could and should have been more than the 3 goal margin had the referee blown for one of the most blatant penalty appeals ever but a win is a win, another clean sheet and 3 goals, I’m not going to be picky.

Mick McCarthy said after the game that they had lost to the champions and without getting too far ahead of myself I’m pretty sure that is where we are heading. We are winning games well and pretty easily - in the past I have worried about injuries or suspensions but we have a deep, talented squad and even when a few players leave to go to the AFCON, we should have plenty of cover.

Jonjo Shelvey for me had a good game, perhaps not as special as his recent performances but it was interesting to see almost all attacking moves played through him. He completely ran the midfield in both attacking and defending and it is clear to see we have the league’s best midfielder in our ranks by an absolute mile.

Perez was named MOTM undoubtedly due to his brace of goals but I thought Jamaal Lascelles had a fantastic game at the back. He won everything and despite the opposition not proving much of a threat, he never put a foot wrong.

Up next is a bang in-form Preston in a home EFL Cup tie on Tuesday night. I’m really looking forward to the game and it will be very interesting to see what team Rafa picks. I’ve said it before the last couple of games and I have been wrong but I do expect Aleksandar Mitrovic to feature, if not start the game and I would imagine the likes of Lazaar, Hayden, Atsu and Hanley, possibly even Sels will get a run out.

The ability to rotate could be the difference between us and Preston. I suspect their choice will be to play their strongest eleven in the hope of winning the game, but risking injuries and tiredness due to them only having a few days rest, or to pick fringe players in a bid to focus on the league and giving their first team time to recover. Thankfully we have such a deep squad I would imagine even our second choice “cup team” is good enough to beat a Preston starting eleven - and that is not arrogance, it’s just something I strongly believe we are capable of doing, we have strength throughout the 20+ man squad and I no longer see us having a weak link.

As I keep saying, right now it is a very, very good time to be a Newcastle United fan. Howay the lads!