Here’s Dom Fifield’s match report...
That’s all from me. Thanks for your company! Now make haste to the good man Simon Burnton and his Liverpool v Tottenham MBM:
OK, Shaun Wilkinson, I’ll let you have a final word:
“With hindsight, I wish I hadn’t mentioned McClaren as it seems this turned into a comparison between the two, which is not the point I was making. My point is that Benitez has to take the blame for some of what has gone wrong, and he is let off the hook completely. Some of your emailers seem to have even decided there are two different Mike Ashleys, the really good one that McClaren worked under, and the impossible one there now. I think all the answers coming in further reinforce my original point - like criticising Maradona in Naples or Marcelo Bielsa in front of Jonathan Wilson, minds are already made up.”
You are *very* lucky that Wilson is almost certainly not reading this.
Well that was a fun game, played at a rapid tempo, played between two deeply flawed sides who were both happy to have a go. Palace will, especially going by that second half, think they should have won – and probably that they should have had a second penalty near the end, too. Newcastle rode their luck at times but were particularly decent before the break and certainly contributed to an entertaining spectacle. They’ll probably like their point more.
Full-time: Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle
That’s it – honours even!
Updated
90+4 min: It’s Newcastle who have – probably – the final opening though, Atsu curling wide after a Ritchie-led counter. He might have made Hennessey work there.
90+2 min: Hayden gets in vitally to stop Benteke giving Townsend a clear run. Palace are still piling forward.
90+1 min: We are in the first of four added minutes ...
88 min: Oh my word! Zaha does beautifully to send Yedlin flying, then checks back and chips one to the back post for Benteke. It’s a free header but back there is Clark, who can see Darlow is about to be beaten and covers heroically, clearing off the line! Then Clark clears again, superbly, from the rebound! From the corner, Newcastle survive but there’s more than a hint of a shirt tug from Shelvey in there – I didn’t see who on. If you give the first one, how don’t you give that?
Updated
86 min: But Palace still look more likely to score and Zaha, offered space to shuffle inside by Van Aanholt’s run outside him, once again finds a decent position only to blaze past the angle. Hayden then spears a low effort into Hennessey’s arms as Newcastle forage upfield.
85 min: Newcastle are having their best spell of the half; Shelvey is, for the first time since the interval, getting on the ball a bit and picking some passes.
84 min: Gayle nearly reaches a useful Atsu cross, after the winger keeps the ball in, and Newcastle then win a corner on the left. It’s cleared and Dummett then has to look sharp to stop Cabaye playing Zaha through on the counter.
81 min: His first act is to run the ball out of play for a goal kick, although Townsend clearly sends him on his way and it should be a free kick.
80 min: Newcastle would love a bit of control and maybe Merino, who settled the sides’ previous meeting this season, will offer some. He comes on for Perez.
78 min: Just over the bar from McArthur, who takes the ball on, weaves a shooting opportunity and might think he should hit the target from 18 yards.
78 min: Although Palace are still on top you can’t say what’ll happen here – it’s error-strewn all over the place but thoroughly decent to watch.
76 min: The goal nearly comes to Palace, as Darlow and Lascelles jump for a high ball together and watch in horror as it bounces free. McArthur – I think – has a chance to shoot but it’s blocked.
Updated
75 min: Zaha goes the *very* long way round Newcastle’s defence, only to disappoint with his shot after all that. We are entering the Latter Stages. Next goal probably wins!
73 min: We play on now, and the ... errr ... naked truth is that Newcastle are still wobbling. They survive another attack but then, from nothing, create a situation of their own when Atsu latches onto a quick throw-in and tries to dink the ball over Hennessey, with Palace standing still and expecting a decision to go their way. Hennesey spreads himself and blocks.
72 min: And that shows you can’t rule Newcastle out of winning this yet. Palace are no great shakes at the back, on today’s evidence. Meanwhile play is held up by a pitch invader, which draws stern, admonitory reproach from the commentators and an anywhere-but-the-pitch series of camera angles.
70 min: A novelty, for this half – a Newcastle attack and a Newcastle corner! It causes half a flutter as it’s allowed to bounce in the box, but eventually the danger dissolves.
68 min: Zaha funnels down the left and wins a corner. If it carries on like this I don’t know how Newcastle hold out, although they deal with the set piece.
66 min: Darlow clears poorly and Benteke feeds Cabaye on the edge of the box. He’s leaning back but he’s scored from these positions before – instead he skews it disappointingly off target.
65 min: Zaha twists Yedlin and Dummett inside out but his clipped ball across is behind Townsend. That was half a chance. Newcastle bring Hayden on, and the goalscorer Diame off. I think Diame has a knock.
64 min: Fosu-Mensah takes a yellow for fouling Atsu, who had embarked upon a reasonably menacing run. It was a good plan, as the free-kick is repelled with ease.
63 min: They have had a few minutes’ respite now and, my word, they needed it. When Palace do get going they are a whirlwind and, for that spell there, you feared for Newcastle. You still do.
60 min: And now a fine move ends up with McArthur standing a deep ball up from which Zaha tries and misses a scissor kick ... it comes all the way out to Van Aanholt, whose delivery is fumbled awkwardly by Darlow but Newcastle survive. Palace are currently all over them.
59 min: Now it’s a Palace corner on the left, and Benteke hangs in the air to meet it ... only to thud his header over!
58 min: Cabaye’s free-kick is nodded away and Newcastle can breathe again.
57 min: Atsu replaces Kenedy for Newcastle. What are they made of now? Dummett slices through Townsend on the right and is booked – they appear to be wobbling.
Goal! Crystal Palace 1-1 Newcastle (Milivojevic pen 55)
That’s the equaliser they wanted, but only just – Darlow gets his paws onto Milivojevic’s penalty but it creeps in and that is all that matters. What a good spot that was from the referee, Andre Marriner, on the shirt tug.
Updated
Penalty to Crystal Palace!
A Zaha delivery, after a flowing move, whizzes just above Benteke and that appears to be that ... but Clark tugged his shirt and it is, rightly, a spot kick!
53 min: Newcastle are sitting a few yards deeper than in the first half. Palace therefore have more of the ball but do they have the guile when not hitting on the break? They almost show some when Van Aanholt crosses accurately for Townsend at the back stick, but the winger’s header loops over.
50 min: Kenedy bundles Cabaye over 35 yards out and this could be a threat. It’s quite central, though, so the angle isn’t great ... and ultimately the ball is played square to Van Aanholt, who shoots wastefully over from a silly position.
Updated
47 min: They start very brightly, raining a few crosses in before a Milivojevic shot deflects wide for a corner. Benteke almost meets it with Darlow nowhere, but Newcastle are able to break immediately and are two and one through Kenedy and Perez! But Kenedy’s pass through is poor, and Perez may have been just offside – big chance missed, really.
Updated
Peeeeep! Back underway
Will Palace go all guns blazing? Let’s see ...
@NickAmes82 Said it before and I'll say it again: managers are just one small part of a team, like the keeper or even the right back, and if the whole establishment is in a mess then even the best manager isn't going to get beyond the spectrum that runs from awful to pretty bad.
— R. Marr (@RolloTreadway) February 4, 2018
Probably true.
And Kieran Houston writes:
“While I think it’s fair to say that Rafa gets patience from the Newcastle fans (you could argue it’s something all the promoted teams have – as they know they may never get a better manager!), the I think the comparison with McClaren is completely unfair.
“The squad McClaren started with in 15/16 including Coloccini, Wijnaldum, Sissoko, Townsend and Papiss Cisse, all of whom, you could argue, would walk into Newcastle’s starting XI today. His squad is simply not as good.
“Worth remembering that Newcastle’s transfer record is still 16m for Michael Owen in 2005. There’s no conspiracy or myth to the squad not being invested in.”
And this, among several good points sent by Patrick Winters: “Rafa does not get a free pass. We just take into account all he has to put up with and all he has done. McClaren was given freer rein with signings!”
Remember Shaun Wilkinson’s absolute flame thrower of an email earlier? Here is AB Parker in response. He even mentions Net Spend:
“Last time I checked, Rafa has a negative net spend, didn’t get a single transfer in during the January window and has a team with no real star players in it, while still not being humiliated in big games. In contrast, McClaren broke transfer records, suffered humiliations at the hands of teams like Palace, and was backed all the way. “
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Half-time: Crystal Palace 0-1 Newcastle
An engaging, see-sawing half. Newcastle have looked the better in general play and deserve to be ahead on that score. But Palace will point to at least three decent chances of their own even if it’s all been rather frayed at the edges. There’s a lot more to come from this one – stay with us!
46+2 min: Yep, Mamadou Sakho will replace Kelly. It’s his return from 10 games out and he is heartily cheered.
45 min: And now a chance for Cabaye! It’s Zaha, into Benteke, and then on to the onrushing Cabaye via a lovely flick. The ball just doesn’t quite sit up perfectly and, as it comes down, he has to stretch and jab it into a grateful Darlow’s midriff. Meanwhile Martin Kelly appears to have pulled up – hamstring? – and that might be him done ...
44 min: Then Palace, finishing the half strongly, claim a penalty but Ritchie’s tackle on Cabaye was fine.
43 min: Zaha tricks his way inside, shoots, the ball is deflected twice and Darlow has to react quickly ... parrying the ball right onto Benteke, in front of goal, who has no chance of reacting properly at that range and watches as the ball rebounds off him and wide!
Updated
42 min: Darlow, who has had a good half, flies through the air to claim a dangerous Townsend cross ahead of Benteke.
41 min: This is as smooth and convincing as I can remember Newcastle looking in some time. Shelvey has kept things ticking and I think Kenedy, who I last saw doing next to nothing for Chelsea in their 0-0 draw at Norwich, has made a difference too.
39 min: Newcastle earn another flag kick. Shelvey outswings it but Lascelles – I think – misses his kick as he looks to volley. I cursed him, clearly.
37 min: Lascelles has turned into a really good player, hasn’t he? One who could play higher up the division. He heads a Palace free-kick away, which isn’t spectacular in itself but just got me thinking.
35 min: JR in Illinois corrects me about that flat, but assist-worthy, corner for Newcastle’s goal. Kenedy, not Ritchie, was the taker and I apologise to all fantasy football enthusiasts with a stake in the matter.
32 min: Straight down the other end and Hennessey has to save Palace twice! First, from that erroneously given goal kick, Kenedy gets away down the left and twists inside, seeing the whites of the ‘keeper’s eyes but seeing his shot blocked superbly. The ball stays alive and falls to Perez, who curls one from 18 yards but is denied by a flying tip round the post. The corner comes to nothing, but what a decent game this is!
31 min: What a chance for Zaha! It’s not quite Raheem Sterling territory but Fosu-Mensah gets behind Newcastle on the right, slides the ball across and there’s the Palace talisman to convert from 10 yards. But no! He doesn’t make a great contact and it pings off a defender and behind. Anywhere else and that’s a goal ... in the event, Newcastle are mistakenly awarded a goal kick.
29 min: Kenedy holds the ball up well down by the flag and wins another Newcastle corner. Can they cause more chaos here? It’s a tantalising delivery from Shelvey but a flying Palace head bullets it away with opponents lurking.
27 min: Now Palace look to respond and Zaha gets a little space down the left before checking back, a bit needlessly I thought. The ball ends up, at a couple of removes, being slashed wildly over from 30 yards by Cabaye.
25 min: I think we all expected Newcastle to sit in and look for the counter today, and while they’ve hardly been Man City they’ve taken it to Palace instead and seen a lot of the ball. It’s been Palace who have had to rely on quick breaks, like that Benteke chance. In some ways, mind you I guess you could argue that these are two teams with similar approaches and Newcastle are currently executing it better.
Goal! Crystal Palace 0-1 Newcastle (Diame 22)
For the way they have approached the opening quarter, Newcastle deserve this. It’s an odd one, Ritchie delivering the corner left-footed but not brilliantly. The ball seems too low but it squeezes through a crowd of players and there’s Diame, on his own at the far post, to jab home a pretty soft goal!
Updated
22 min: It has been loose from Palace so far, even if they should be ahead. Kenedy sees a cross-shot blocked and then Zaha tracks back exceptionally well to deny Yedlin from angle. It brings a corner, from which ...
20 min: No, Fosu-Mensah is down again. Play carried on for a minute or so but he pulled up after a Newcastle move had been called offside. Looks as if he’ll continue for now, after some extensive treatment ...
18 min: A few meaty challenges are flying in, the latest seeing both Kenedy and Fosu-Mensah end up in a heap. The Palace man takes it more heavily but looks to be made of strong enough stuff to continue.
Updated
16 min: Nice again from Newcastle there, Shelvey moving the ball across to Yedlin before the right-back whips in a cross that Perez volleys towards goal. Hennessey saves smartly down to his right.
15 min: Just as I say all that, we have a bit of a breather with both sides playing the ball around the back – before Newcastle try and quicken things up with a direct ball from Clark to Gayle, which doesn’t quite fall for the striker.
13 min: Kenedy, down the left, looks lively so far and so does this game – more so than I’d expected, to be honest. Newcastle come again and it’s Kenedy himself, on the edge of the box, who picks out Ritchie for a scuffed shot that harms nobody.
11 min: A second look at that Benteke chance confirms he should do better but also necessitates credit to Dummett, whose (fair) challenge unsettled the striker as he shot.
9 min: Chance for Benteke! Van Aanholt dances past Lascelles just inside his own half, weaves inside and then threads a brilliant ball through for an onside Benteke. He’s clean through and I think he should score, but Darlow is out like a whippet to block! Palace have got behind Newcastle twice now, though, even if the visitors have had more territory.
7 min: Ritchie swings the ball over to a totally unmarked Kenedy at the far post. Kenedy is, I guess, kind of running around the ball so it’s not quite as easy to take on himself as you might think. He tries to nod back for the onrushing Shelvey and the ball is spirited away, but Newcastle have begun decently.
6 min: Zaha has a knock and is looking concerned. So, understandably, is Hodgson. But we continue and Hennessey has to produce a good punch after Lascelles nods a Shelvey free-kick back across goal. The ‘keeper then has to gather a Gayle snap shot, which he does quite comfortably.
5 min: Good “narrative” potential today, of course, with the likes of Cabaye, Townsend and Gayle all coming up against old chums. It is Cabaye’s 100th appearance for Palace today; I suspect Newcastle would love to have him, still.
3 min: Something almost happens there though! Zaha gets onto a lovely slide-rule ball by, I think, Cabaye and outstrips Clark but Lascelles is in there *just* in time to stop him going one-on-one with Darlow.
Updated
2 min: The atmosphere sounds good at Selhurst. Not a lot else happening yet although Newcastle have slightly shaded the early possession.
Peeeeep! The football begins!
Newcastle, in all black, kick off and go right to left on yer tellybox.
Right of reply for Shaun Wilkinson (further responses to whom will have to wait til half-time) here: “Let me respond to Hubert immediately; I didn’t write “McClaren = Rafa”. I wrote that they both worked under the same circumstances and Rafa is not doing much better than McClaren did. Am I wrong? Or are Newcastle far pushing for the Europa League and I am just misreading the league table?”
“I believe the reason Mikel Merino isn’t playing week in/week out at the moment (despite him being our classiest player) is due to a reoccurring back injury,” writes James Knight. “He’s mentioned it a few times before, and I think it stops him being able to play in a string of games. Which is a shame, because Shelvey and him have been swapping roles a lot recently and I think most fans would love to see what they can do when playing together ... “
Ah, gotcha. Thanks James!
The players are on their way out at Selhurst! The home fans are Glad All Over. Can we see this being a free-flowing affair? I think it’ll be nip and tuck for the first half at least ...
@NickAmes82 Soooo...Steve McLaren = Rafa? Bless Shaun's heart and I respect him for chancing that opinion. Actually, I'll have two of what he's having as it's been at least three days since I've enjoyed a good hallucination.
— Hubert O'Hearn (@BTBReviews) February 4, 2018
At least Shaun forewarned himself here ...
Meanwhile, Benjamin Oates just isn’t having any of it:
“As a neutral, I tend to find Newcastle rather boring. It’s always about them especially whenever they play anyone outside the big 6. Ashley this, Benitez wants that, I get that they’re a huge club, just not as newsworthy as the coverage they get suggests.”
I think their revival in the mid-90s, and that wonderful Keegan team, did give them a lot of credit they’ve struggled to justify since. But some huge names have passed through in the meantime; it’s always intriguing to see what happens then and, besides, it has been something of an enduring soap opera off the pitch ...
This is an interesting email from Shaun Wilkinson about Newcastle – and particularly Benitez:
“I think most Newcastle fans would tell you they like their team more now than back then. However (dons tin hat) I think my fellow Toon supporters are increasingly becoming victims of the Rafa Goggles; we keep hearing how Rafa is manfully struggling on under impossible circumstances and nobody could do well in this situation, but he has the same conditions as, say, Steve McClaren and doesn’t seem to be doing much better.
“Let me stress that of course it is an extremely difficult job and I am not saying I have no sympathy for Benitez and the constraints he is under, but for me he has done a lot this season that previous managers would have been slaughtered for by my fellow Newcastle sympathisers. Look at the amount of points Newcastle have dropped from winning positions this season. I realise I will get pelters for this, and I respect him a lot for sticking with Newcastle when the went down, but I am getting a little tired of the free pass Benitez is getting.”
Anyone agree?
As we said at the top of the show, that relegation fight is an absolute battlefield – perhaps more than ever. Palace are a great example of the hope you can give yourselves when you put a run together but what about Bournemouth, who were in such trouble six weeks ago and have taken 15 points from their last seven games? They’d need a collapse to go down now really – but perhaps they can inspire one of these two to do something similar and claw their way out.
Updated
Another question for Newcastle fans: why doesn’t Mikel Merino start today? I know he did against Burnley in midweek, but has his form dropped off? He was all the rage in the season’s early weeks!
Worth remembering that Palace, for their part, are now bereft of Bakary Sako – who had looked like he could do pretty neatly over the final months of the season. He has been ruled out for the long term, possibly even into next season, after sustaining a fractured ankle and damaged ligaments at West Ham in midweek. Bad news all round.
Last time Newcastle visited Selhurst Park they were absolutely rolled over. It finished 5-1 and I was there, I remember it well. Newcastle were a total shambles that day, an embarrassment, and I don’t think you can accuse the current crop of being like that even if the quality often isn’t there. Would that be fair to say, Newcastle fans? Surely you like your club more than you did back then?
Today's teams
Crystal Palace: Hennessey; Fosu-Mensah, Tomkins, Kelly, Van Aanholt; Townsend, Milivojevic, Cabaye, McArthur, Zaha; Benteke. Subs: Henry, Ward, Riedewald, Sakho, Souare, Lee, Sorloth.
Newcastle: Darlow; Yedlin, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett; Ritchie, Shelvey, Diame, Kenedy; Perez, Gayle. Subs: Dubravka, Manquillo, Lejeune, Hayden, Merino, Atsu, Murphy.
No sign of Slimani then, a thigh injury I think, although Palace’s own new striker – Alexander Sorloth – has a place on the home bench!
Afternoon
It’s not the day’s biggest draw but it’s equally – perhaps more – important. Palace v Newcastle is what the chap down the pub might term a “six-pointer”, although one uses that term advisedly nowadays because pretty much every meeting of sides in this season’s bottom half would qualify for that. But there they sit snugly side by side in 15th (Eagles) and 16th (Magpies), and both could do with the kind of victory that might lever them up and towards the hallowed ground of Mid Table!
Palace, two points better off and with a far bouncier feel about them given the turnaround wrought by Mr Roy, will fancy their chances and have only lost once at home – to Arsenal – since Southampton turned them over in September. Newcastle did win at Stoke on New Year’s Day and West Ham a few days before that, so we can’t say they’re totally bereft of hope away from home – the big question for them is whether the deadline day addition of Islam Slimani, on loan from Leicester, will provide enough firepower to bring them a position Rafa Benitez feels is more becoming. Rafa almost certainly didn’t get everything he wanted in January and, with the takeover situation still clear as mud, these remain deeply frustrating times on Tyneside.
Will some of the annoyance have lifted in a few hours’ time? Or will Palace’s Roy Renaissance keep rolling? There’s not only one place to find out, I’d be lying if I said that, but choose this one – and keep your emails and tweets flooding in!
Nick will be here shortly. In the meantime, read Ed Aarons on five players who could be next Messi or Ronaldo:
“A very good question,” mused Cristiano Ronaldo as he basked in the glory of his second successive Ballon d’Or and fifth overall back in December. “I see some with great potential: Asensio, Mbappé, Neymar, Dembélé, Hazard, Rashford … and some others. In the next generation there are at least 10 players with very, very great potential.”
It’s more than a decade since Milan’s Kaká became the last player outside of the Ronaldo-Lionel Messi duopoly to walk away with football’s highest individual honour. But with the Real Madrid forward celebrating his 33rd birthday on Monday and Barcelona’s talisman now the wrong side of 30 having also accumulated a record five Ballon d’Ors since he burst onto the scene as a teenager, the end of their era is almost upon us.
As Ronaldo hinted, however, discerning who will emerge as the dominant force over the next decade is easier said than done. Neymar, who became the most expensive player in history when he left Barça to join Paris Saint-Germain in August for €222m (£198m), is the obvious answer given that the Brazilian has finished third behind Ronaldo and Messi in two of the last three years, while Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Paulo Dybala of Juventus certainly have the ability – especially if their long-mooted moves to La Liga finally become reality this summer.
Yet while Neymar turns 26 on the same day as Ronaldo and Hazard has just reached 27 - previously widely acknowledged as the prime age for any player – it is the emerging generation that looks most fascinating. From Spanish sensation Marco Asensio, France’s Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappé and English prospects Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Ryan Sessegnon, the fight is on to become football’s next global superstar.
Read the full story here:
