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Opinion

Unpopular opinion – Joelinton was best player on the pitch for Newcastle United at Spurs

3 years ago
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Joelinton was recalled to the Newcastle United starting eleven on Sunday.

United taking on Tottenham and the Brazilian one of three changes.

Matt Ritchie in for Jamal Lewis, Miguel Almiron replacing Allan Saint-Maximin, whilst Joelinton took the place of Andy Carroll.

Steve Bruce starting with a formation (allegedly) that was supposed to be 4-3-3 according to the club beforehand, on the pitch looked to be supposedly 5-2-3, whilst in effect it was a bit 10-0-0, or 9-0-1 at best.

Inadvertently, this brought the best out of one Newcastle United player.

Well, when I say best, I mean better than most of what we have seen before.

Step forward Joelinton.

Yes, our £40m+ record signing came good, or well, good compared to what we have seen mostly prior to Sunday.

Joelinton has played in all 41 of the Premier League games since arriving at St James Park, another remarkable statistic considering how poor he has been.

Today though, forgetting about the shellshocked Karl Darlow in goal having to deal with a shot every four minutes on average, the Brazilian was the top Newcastle man.

Only he and Manquillo, plus Almiron to an extent, doing better than poor.

However, when you pay £40m+ for a goalscoring centre-forward, to see him having one of his best games as a supplementary left-back, maybe wasn’t what Mike Ashley was expecting when he ridiculed Rafa Benitez for opposing the signing of the then Hoffenheim player.

On a day when his former Hoffenheim teammates hammered Bayern Munich 4-1, Joelinton helped keep the score down at the Tottenham stadium with a plucky performance in the left-back area, that helped create the platform for that ridiculous / amazing penalty decision that gifted NUFC a point.

We are truly living the dream.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Tottenham 1 Newcastle 1 – Sunday 27 September 2pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Wilson pen 90+7

Tottenham:

Moura 25

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Tottenham 66% (68%) Newcastle 34% (32%)

Total shots were Tottenham 23 (12) Newcastle 6 (2)

Shots on target were Tottenham 12 (5) Newcastle 1 (0)

Corners were Tottenham 10 (5) Newcastle 4 (2)

Referee: Peter Bankes

Newcastle United:

Darlow, Manquillo, Fernandez, Lascelles, Ritchie (Lewis 69), Shelvey, Hayden, Hendrick (Murphy 74), Almiron (Carroll 77), Wilson, Joelinton

Unused Subs:

Gillespie, Krafth, Yedlin, Sean Longstaff

Crowd: 00,000

(Tottenham 1 Newcastle 1 – Match ratings and comments on all NUFC players – Read HERE)

(Jose Mourinho takes vow of silence after Newcastle United spoil his super Sunday – Read HERE)

(Jamie Carragher loves what he sees in Newcastle match “Absolute disgrace. It is an absolute joke.” – Read HERE)

(3 Positives and 3 Negatives from Tottenham 1 Newcastle 1 – Read HERE)

(Tottenham 1 Newcastle 1 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Sunday’s unbelievable draw – Read HERE)

(Deserved penalty and first NUFC shot on target in over 3 hours – Tottenham 1 Newcastle 1 – Read HERE)

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