When Steve McClaren agreed to take over the manager’s job at Newcastle United last summer, it is fair to assume he knew, judging by what had gone before him, that he would be in for a roller-coaster ride.
An understatement if ever there was one.
Fresh off their fantastic win at home to Liverpool the previous week, Newcastle travelled to the form team in the Premier League this past weekend to face a Tottenham Hotspur side who were unbeaten in the league since the opening day of the season.
It looked like the Liverpool win would be the zenith of their December when Eric Dier headed in a Christian Eriksen corner to give Spurs a first-half lead. Normal service resumed.
Not quite.
White Hart Lane has been a happy hunting ground for Newcastle in recent seasons, and so it proved again on Sunday as substitutes Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoz Perez squeezed in goals to record a third successive win in North London for the team from England’s North-east.
The wins over two top-four challenging sides has propelled Newcastle out of the relegation zone and defied a certain logic to the truly shambolic displays in previous hammerings to Crystal Palace (5-1), Leicester City (3-0), Sunderland (3-0) and Manchester City (6-1).
Stop the ride! I want to get off! McClaren and Newcastle’s seasons have a few more twists and turns to go yet.
READ ALSO: Tottenham's silver lining in the cloud after defeat to Newcastle
On your ’ead, son
Strikers live to score goals. It is what they are paid, handsomely so, to do on a consistent basis.
They will take them anyway they come: headers, volleys, two-yard tap-ins or 30-yard screamers. They will always try to claim a goal, even if they are not necessarily in the general vicinity of the ball.
No one here or at the dubious goals panel would dream of taking away Kelechi Iheanacho’s goal against Swansea City on Saturday.
Manchester City’s Nigerian striker did his best to make a nuisance of himself as Yaya Toure strode purposefully towards the Swansea goal before cutting in from the right and unleashing a venomous left-foot shot.
Iheanacho, no doubt thinking that getting a Toure piledriver full on in the face on a cold, December afternoon in Manchester might leave a mark, wisely turned his back. The ball cracked the back of his head and flew into the top corner for a quite spectacular goal.
There is no telling where the ball would have ended up if it were not for the intervention of Iheanacho’s skull, but one thing is for sure – the 19-year-old striker will be claiming he meant it.
READ ALSO: Manchester City make a habit of winning late
Take a bow, Giroud
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said his French striker, Oliver Giroud, deserves more respect after blasting home his ninth league goal of the season against Aston Villa on Sunday, from the penalty spot.
This followed his midweek heroics against Olympiakos when a fine hat-trick propelled Arsenal into the last 16 of the Uefa Champions League for a 16th consecutive season.
So kudos where kudos is due. That goalscoring form has taken Arsenal to the top of the league table and into the knockout stages of Europe’s premier club competition.
Giroud is the toast of the Emirates Stadium, and rightly so.
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