Will it be enough to convince Rafael Benitez to stay at Newcastle? It remains to be seen. But everyone in black and white will be feeling much better about themselves after this morale-boosting win, secured by a late goal from Jamal Lascelles. It was a scrappy game, low on quality, but Newcastle won’t care. They have six points from four games and have gone 10th. As for Swansea, they drop to 15th. They were poor. Paul Clement is going to need some time to work out his best side without Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente. Thanks for emailing and reading. Especially you, Rafa. Bye!
Updated
Full-time: Swansea City 0-1 Newcastle United
Muted boos from the Swansea fans, relieved cheers from the Newcastle fans.
90 min+2: Bony brings the ball down and releases Narsingh, who charges into the area and decides to shoot from a tight angle. Elliot diverts it behind at his near post. Nothing comes from the corner.
90 min+1: Clucas annoys the home fans and his team-mates with a dreadful free-kick.
90 min: There will be five added minutes.
90 min: Alfie Mawson has gone down now. He needs treatment.
88 min: Swansea hoick the ball into the middle of the Newcastle area. The defending’s skittish and eventually the ball’s burrowed behind for a corner. It’s sent to the far post, but the unmarked Fer heads over.
87 min: A booking for dissent for Dwight Gayle.
86 min: Luciano Narsingh replaces Tom Carroll. Merino has been receiving some treatment. Newcastle have stopped Swansea gaining any rhythm since the goal.
84 min: Ritchie curls in another set-piece from the left. Bony, whose contribution has been minimal, heads behind for a Newcastle corner.
80 min: “Rafa, Rafael, Rafa, Rafael, Rafa, Rafael, Rafael Benitez!” is the chant booming out of the away end now. Six points from four matches wouldn’t be bad at all. Meanwhile Fer has been booked for Swansea.
Updated
79 min: “I really wonder what to make of Renato Sanches,” says Konstantin Sauer. “Your account of his display so far reminds me of nearly every time he got a chance for Bayern under Carlo Ancelotti: very eager and determined to impress, yet too often choosing the wrong option, especially when it comes to either passing the ball or making a run towards goal. I understand that it is especially hard for a young player at Bayern Munich who is aware that there will only be a limited number of chances for him to leave a mark. However, I haven’t seen any sign of renewed self-esteem yet. I very much hope Swansea will turn out to be the right choice for him, otherwise I don’t see a future for him at Bayern.”
78 min: Dwight Gayle replaces Joselu.
GOAL! Swansea 0-1 Newcastle (Lascelles, 76 min)
A corner to Newcastle on the left, won by Atsu. Ritchie curls it into the six-yard box and Lascelles attacks it eagerly, rising above Mawson to powerfully head past Fabianski! Happy now, Rafa?
Updated
75 min: Joselu rolls a backpass to Fabianski from 20 yards.
74 min: From Gamez’s cross, Joselu’s header is straight at Fabianski.
73 min: This is a big chance for Newcastle. Manquillo’s pass inside from the right finds Perez, who has a surprising amount of space to run into and no one between him and Fabianski. He shoots low and hard, but Fabianski saves with his feet.
72 min: Wilfried Bony is wearing the No2 shirt, in honour of how many goals he scored for Stoke last season.
69 min: It’s time for Big Wilf. Wilfried Bony comes on for his second Swansea debut, replacing Renato Sanches, who, quite frankly, has been majestically bad. Mo Diame is also on for Isaac Hayden.
Updated
68 min: Ritchie saunters down the right before slipping a ball through to Perez, who flashes a cross-shot across the face of goal, no one there to apply the final touch.
65 min: Renato Sanches scampers through the middle with space to attack, only to suddenly look as though he’s trudging through treacle, leave the ball behind and fall over. It’s not quite been a Woodgate of a debut, but it hasn’t been great.
63 min: “I’m glad the game is still eleven versus eleven, but surely Ritchie has to walk?” says Matt Loten. “The consensus yesterday was that Man’s sending off was correct because the law stipulates that a tackle which ‘endangers the safety’ of an opponent is to be punished with a straight red card. Whether or not the player makes contact is irrelevant; Ritchie threw his studs up in the direction of Mawson’s face, at pace, just as Mane did to Ederson, thus he must receive a red. At least as far as I can tell.”
60 min: Leroy Fer turns in the middle of the Newcastle half and, finally, someone in white produces a moment of real quality, a pass through to Tammy Abraham that completely slices the visiting defence in two. Abraham is in the clear and in the area and he looks certain to score after round Elliot in the Aguero style - only for Jamal Lascelles to race back and scramble the striker’s goalbound effort off the line! Superb defending! Perhaps, though, Abraham would have scored had he lifted his shot off the ground.
Updated
59 min: Christian Atsu replaces Jacob Murphy.
58 min: Sanches takes the free-kick, but it’s not much of a surprise to see his effort drift aimlessly over the bar.
57 min: Sanches tumbles 30 yards from goal. Free-kick to Swansea. It’s made for Gylf... sorry.
Updated
56 min: Ayew twists and turns on the left, all trickery and mischief, and hangs a cross towards the far post. Naughton arrives, slamming a volley into the six-yard box, and Ritchie clears, doing well not to score an own-goal. Still Swansea press, though. Again it’s Ayew twinkling on the left. He scoops a beautiful little pass through to Carroll, who volleys from an angle, forcing Elliot to make a smart save.
54 min: Ayoze Perez reminds the world of his existence by blazing over from 25 yards.
51 min: Swansea win a corner on the right. Newcastle deal with the ensuing aerial threat. The hosts still haven’t created a clear opportunity.
49 min: Merino swings a ball towards the right. Ritchie attacks it with his boot raised and ends up catching Mawson in the face with his studs as the Swansea centre-back heads it away. Fortunately Mawson didn’t go down; he wasn’t caught properly. But given what happened at the Etihad yesterday, for a moment you wonder if Ritchie’s about to be sent off. Instead he’s booked.
48 min: Naughton loses his footing and cynically brings down Gamez. Yellow card.
46 min: Newcastle get the second half underway. Renato Sanches has switched roles with Leroy Fer, moving behind the front two. Sanches had an indifferent first half.
Half-time: Swansea City 0-0 Newcastle United
The highlight was when Abraham fell on Hayden, a classic Premier League moment.
45 min+1: Hayden looks to place one from 25 yards. Straight at Fabianski.
43 min: Swansea appeal for a penalty after Jamal Lascelles curiously decides to fall on the ball while making a complete hash of an attempted clearing diving header. Handball? Replays suggest he controlled it with his stomach in the end, but that was very nearly a calamitous moment for the Newcastle centre-back.
41 min: Forget what I said about Merino facing retrospective action: as Alan Smith points out on Sky, it can only happen if the referee awards a foul.
40 min: Hayden slips on the ball, causing Abraham to fall on top of him. Both players are feeling sore. “I was seated next to a Bayern fan as we watched his team take on Liverpool in pre-season and the performance of Sanches was enough for him to turn to me, a complete stranger, and politely vent that Sanches was by far the worst Bayern player he had ever seen,” says Ian Copestake.
39 min: This is beginning to liven up now! From the resulting corner, Alfie Mawson rises highest in the six-yard box, but his header drops an inch past the right post!
38 min: Swansea haven’t done anything all half, but here’s a decent moment from them, Ayew dribbling forward and forcing Elliot to tip his 25-yard effort wide for a corner.
36 min: Come to think of it, Merino could face retrospective action for that dive under the new guidelines.
35 min: Newcastle have woken up a bit now and are starting to increase the intensity of their attacks. Merino goes on a surge through the middle and tries to dodge through two challenges on the edge of the Swansea area. Alfie Mawson dives in and Merino goes flying. It looks like a foul in real time, the appeals are long and loud, but Mike Jones waves play on. Replays show it was a lamentable dive from Merino, who’s fortunate not to be booked.
34 min: Newcastle are pressing here. Ritchie whips the corner in from the right and Fabianski punches away.
33 min: Swansea make a meal of a passing move down the right, Sanches unable to control a loose pass, and Newcastle break. Perez wins a corner for Newcastle, who have been the more enterprising side, sort of. The corner causes a bit of a scramble and Swansea hack the ball clear. But they’re still under pressure. Matt Ritchie has space on the left and curls a dangerous cross into the middle. Swansea are too deep and Joselu’s clever flicked header looks certain to find its way into the far left corner, until a last-gasp save from Fabianski denies the Spaniard! What a magnificent piece of goalkeeping from Fabianski!
30 min: Joselu turns and wallops a bouncing ball goalwards from 25 yards. It doesn’t dip in time and Fabianski is comfortable watching it fly over.
Updated
28 min: A worrying moment for Swansea, Sanches collapsing in pain after a challenge on Merino. He’s feeling his ankle and needs some treatment. Eventually he gets back to his feet, though, and limps gingerly to the touchline before rejoining the fray.
27 min: Newcastle pump the ball forward. It travels a long way and should be dealt with by Swansea, only for Fernandez to misjudge his positioning and the flight of the ball. Off balance, he succeeds only in heading the ball back into his own area and Jacob Murphy’s through! What a chance this is for Newcastle! However he can’t adjust his body properly and can only steer the dropping ball over Fabianski and the crossbar.
25 min: A free-kick to Swansea on the left. Carroll swings it in, but it’s headed away. “A friend of mine works at Opta and Rafa/Liverpool were a consumer of some of their stats services,” says Richard South. “There was no special relationship between the pair, essentially just that they did some ‘business’ together. Nevertheless, Christmas morning, my friend wakes up to find a personal message from Rafa in his inbox, wishing him and his family a happy Christmas, sent in the early hours of the morning. I mean, sure, Rafa’s a workaholic / obsessive, but I always thought that personal touch spoke volumes for the man (especially someone who’s often seen as cold / detached by some of his players).”
23 min: Swansea have had plenty of the ball, but they lack incision and width. Have they picked too many central midfielders?
20 min: On the basis of what we’ve seen so far, losing to this Newcastle side was a genuinely staggering achievement by West Ham. Losing 3-0, no less! Congratulations to everyone involved.
18 min: This is a game low on entertainment.
15 min: “You’ve got to feel for the guy; whatever else you might say about him, he is clearly an absolutely elite class manager (as well as, by all accounts, a genuinely lovely guy) , and yet keeps getting saddled with horrendous owners / directors,” says Richaerd South. “The famous ‘lampshade’ debacle at Valencia, the truly ghastly American pair at Liverpool (because, yeah, Roy Hodgson would definitely be a major upgrade on Rafa), the well known political viper’s next at Real Madrid and now possibly the worst of the lot, Mike Ashley. Not sure a move to life under the Dildo Brothers would necessarily be much of an improvement on this front, especially given he’s clearly not shy of a political battle himself. Can’t help but feel he needs to be paired with some properly supportive, switched-on owners. Guess there’s not a whole bunch of those guys around though... Sigh.”
11 min: There’s not much of a goal threat from either side yet. Which isn’t entirely surprising given that it took both three games to score.
8 min: Merino tries to pick out Perez with a dinked ball. He doesn’t quite loft it enough and the ball’s headed away to Sanches, who demonstrates his talent by lobbing it over Hayden, who promptly introduces the youngster to English football by barging him over. Hayden’s booked.
7 min: Sanches has now completed two consecutive passes. I’ve changed my mind.
6 min: Another stray pass from Sanches. I’ve already made up my mind on him.
5 min: Sanches excites the home fans by wriggling clear of two Newcastle players on the right, only to play his team into trouble with a loose pass inside. Newcastle set off towards the Swansea area. Joselu has a shot blocked and the ball runs to Hayden, who fires straight at Fabianski from the edge of the area.
Updated
4 min: “I am in no way some random guy pretending to be Rafa Benitez,” says Rafa Benitez Scott Bassett. “I am totally Rafa Benitez, former Real Madrid manager, for crying out loud. Can you please tell Mike Ashley to stop being a jerk? Thank you!”
3 min: Carroll tries to catch out Elliot, attempting to fool the Newcastle goalkeeper into thinking he’s going to cross, before looking to curl the ball into the top right corner. It doesn’t come off.
2 min: The travelling Newcastle fans are singing Rafa Benitez’s name. Swansea have started crisply, though. Renato Sanches makes an early impression, winning possession on the right, and Swansea win a free-kick when Merino brings down Fer. Sanches and Carroll stand over the ball.
And we’re off! The rain is teeming down at the Liberty Stadium as Swansa, all in white, get the ball rolling, kicking from right to left. Newcastle are in their black away strip; I like it.
Here come the teams. It’s almost time for the football. Hi Rafa! Send an email!
Rafa Benitez isn’t at the Liberty Stadium today. I assume he’s reading this minute-by-minute. Hi Rafa!
Paul Clement speaks. “There’s a nice atmosphere around the city and the club at the moment. Clearly we lost some good players in the window, particularly in Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente. It was very important for us to do some good business to make sure we’re confident going into the games. The system has been changing a bit over the past few games. We have been playing with three defenders and wing-backs and three in midfield and two up front, but we’re going with the diamond in midfield today. Renato will feature on the right hand side of that. We’re going to play Leroy Fer a little bit further forward behind two strikers.”
Swansea give a first start in midfield to Renato Sanches, the Portuguese starlet who’s improbably joined them on loan from Bayern Munich. Here’s an excellent profile of Sanches by Barney Ronay. Wilfried Bony is on the bench. What price a goal on his second debut?
Newcastle make two changes to the side that beat West Ham. Jesus Gamez replaces Chancel Mbemba at the back and Jacob Murphy comes in for Christian Atsu. Former Swansea hero Jonjo Shelvey is on the bench after serving a three-match suspension, but Aleksandar Mitrovic is unavailable after introducing his elbow to Manuel Lanzini’s face.
Updated
The teams
Swansea: Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson; Clucas, Sanches, Carroll, Fer, Ayew, Abraham. Subs: Nordfeldt, Rangel, van der Hoorn, Roque Mesa, Routledge, Narsingh, Bony.
Newcastle: Elliot; Gamez, Clark, Lascelles, Manquillo; Ritchie, Hayden, Merino, Murphy; Perez, Joselu. Subs: Woodman, Shelvey, Diame, Lejeune, Yedlin, Atsu, Gayle.
Referee: Mike Jones
Preamble
Hello. Funny thing, expectations. What’s the point if you don’t have any? For all the financial inequality of modern football, you still need to have hopes and dreams. The problem with all that, though, is when reality decides to kick in, as it tends to do with tedious, numbing regularity these days. All of us who have thrilled in 25 years of the Premier League can agree that Newcastle United are A Big Club; A Big Deal. They are Important. They are Interesting. I’m not being facetious here. We all remember 1995-96 title, breaking the transfer record for Alan Shearer, the amazement when Kevin Keegan left, the early noughties resurgence under Sir Bobby Robson. A good Newcastle team is a good thing for neutrals. A good Newcastle team is entertaining. But they haven’t had one for a long time. And that rankles. After all, if Tottenham can challenge for the title, why not Newcastle? They’re no less a name.
They exude romance. It’s what drew Rafael Benitez to them in the first place, even though it meant working for Mike Ashley. It’s probably what kept Benitez there when they went down, even though it meant working for Mike Ashley. It’s probably what’s still keeping him there now, even though it means working for Mike Ashley. It’s the belief that he could achieve something special there. Yet Benitez is a European champion. He has won titles in Spain and trophies in Italy and England. He managed Real Madrid, for crying out loud. His patience isn’t infinite. Newcastle spent around £36m on six players in the summer, but they let 16 players go and bought no one in the summer. West Ham are keeping a close eye on Benitez’s situation. This is the problem with reality: Mike Ashley gets to call the shots.
Then again, for all the doom and gloom, it could be argued that there’s no need for Newcastle to be in crisis mode. They’re a promoted side, after all, they’re going to lose a few games. And they come into this one off the back of a 3-0 win over West Ham. What’s the fuss? Brighton hadn’t scored a goal until beating West Brom yesterday, but no one was talking about Chris Hughton being under pressure. If Newcastle win at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon, they go two points above Swansea City, who are feeling a tad uncertain after selling Fernando Llorente and Gylfi Sigurdsson. But if Swansea lose, there won’t be any talk of Paul Clement quitting. That’s because they’ve accepted the way things have to be, whereas a Newcastle defeat will bring a week of stories about Benitez’s £6m release clause. If he isn’t in the dugout today - he has been recovering from surgery to clear infection from a hernia repair - it might be glimpse of the future. That’s the problem with expectations. Swansea are ready for a scrap. Newcastle can’t help but dream of something bigger. It’s another big Premier League match! And it feels a bit tragic actually.
Kick-off: 4pm BST.
Updated
