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Do Newcastle and Villa get the credit they deserve?

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When this new Premier League season begun back in August many would have expected few teams to still remain unbeaten going into October’s fixtures. Champions Manchester United? Probably. Massive spending Manchester City? Almost certainly.

Aston Villa and Newcastle United after losing various key players? Ye…..hang on a minute! Don’t you mean now perennial title challengers Chelsea? Nope. Or how about big spending and revitalised Liverpool? Certainly not. Finely balanced and attacking Spurs? No no no! Strange as it may seem, as the first league fixtures of October ended, there are four Premier League teams who are still yet to taste defeat this season in the league; first placed Manchester United, second placedManchester City, fourth placed Newcastle Unitedand seventh placed Aston Villa.

Undefeated and flying under the radar of some of the supposed ‘bigger’ clubs in the Premier League Newcastle United and Aston Villa are enjoying a fine start to this season. Even the most ardent supporters of these two clubs would have struggled to believe they would be unbeaten after 7-league games, after the extremely turbulent summer they witnessed. To be honest, many must have feared the worst. Let’s start in the north-east on Tyneside.

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Newcastle were still reeling from the loss of local lad Andy Carroll as the summer began, but with thetransfer window now open again, here was a proper chance to use the huge sum of money they received for their former striker and replace him. Instead, talk was of an exodus of more key players, due to broken promises and contract issues. Captain Kevin Nolan was first high profile name to leave. What must have confused (and maybe embarrassed) fans of the Toon Army was the fact that he left to join a side in the Championship! Next to leave and following in Carroll’s footsteps was the much vaunted Spaniard Jose Enrique, amidst a flurry of unhappy Twitter messages.

Finally, never to be outdone in the controversy stakes (and certainly not on Twitter) was a certain Joey Barton, who appeared to spend most of his time fighting with the board but staying on the right-side of the fans, before making-up with the management team, then leaving for newly promoted QPR on transfer deadline day.

Three more key players had departed, and their replacements seemed a little underwhelming. In came midfielders Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux and Mehdi Abeid from France, followed by another Frenchman, albeit from Manchester United, Gabriel Obertan who had endured a nightmare career thus far with the Champions in England. The striking role was filled by yet another Frenchman with experience of the English league with West Ham in Demba Ba. Enrique’s replacement was found in one time promising Italian left-back Davide Santon.

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  • Vick says:

    Seems to be working without Caroll. Barton, Enrique and Nolan… we are a better team now, without troublemakers.

  • Michael Jones says:

    Newcastle and Villa’s season probably isn’t going to be defined by the games against the so called top sides. It’s how they do against the rest of the league that matters. Taking points off the other teams will in all likelihood mean they finish above those teams.

    My team Newcastle have so far done considerably better against teams this year than they did against the same teams last year.

    Arsenal (H)This year 1 point, Last Year 1 point
    Sunderland (A)TY 3 , LY 1
    Fulham (H)TY 3, LY 0
    Villa (A)TY 0, LY 0
    Blackburn (H)TY 3, LY 0
    Wolves (A)TY 3, LY 1

    Total this year 14, last year 3

    We have also picked up a further point away at QPR, who were in the Championship last year.

    So people might say we haven’t played anybody yet. Apart from being insulting to the teams we have played, the records so far show that actually we have done OK. And so have Villa

    • UTD111 says:

      Mate

      United’s total is 15 – we got a draw at Villa

      • Michael Jones says:

        Thanks. It was a stupid typo

        I showed the Villa as 0 points instead of 1 point, but I included the point in the total of 14, comparing to last seasons 3 against the same teams.

        Then the point at QPR makes 15 that we have

    • 1892 says:

      And I swear we drew with fulham last year

      • Michael Jones says:

        You’re right. OK 14 points against 4. Still a canny improvement. Ignoring the details I was trying to make a point about how well we have done.

        Some people are never happy

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