3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Newcastle 2 Crystal Palace 0

It ended Newcastle 2 Crystal Palace 0.

Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the match.

An ‘interesting’ match at St James’ Park.

Plenty to talk about after this Premier League game.

As United made it consecutive league wins to climb up the table.

On this occasion it is David Punton:

POSITIVES

Back-to-back

Amid a hectic fixture schedule, which has been a massive stretch, they managed to string together back-to-back wins in the Premier League.

Huge points which now have us pretty well placed for the second half of the season. It’s all to play for.

Yes, we want to see better performances, but it’s first foremost a results business and the last two have been really significant for Eddie Howe and his squad – if they take confidence from it and are able to push on.

Speaking of which, it was great to see the lads giving it everything after going 1-0 up. Too many times we’ve sat back and been punished.

Lew wouldn’t believe it

Young Miley once again caught the eye.

The lad has everything. He’s a great talent and will surely only get better and stronger from here.

The manager has asked him to fill in at right back and he’s made it look easy, when it isn’t.

Against Palace, Miley didn’t waste a single ball. All 59 passes found a black and white shirt, plus the assist, which is the best rate for any player in the Premier League this season.

Miley simply cannot be dropped at the moment. He surely has to move into midfield, which is his natural position and where he can really do some damage to the opposition.

Talismanic

Bruno was once again the man of the moment. Where would we be without the skipper?

A vital goal in a key phase of the game when it was locked at 0-0, opening up Palace with a header to send the place wild.

The Brazilian has a bit of magic. He always has that extra something to edge tight football matches.

It’s priceless.

Negatives

VAR farce?

The technology ruled Yoane Wissa was offside but my word was that close?

A similar passage of play in the Fulham v Liverpool game saw the Wirtz goal ruled to be onside at Craven Cottage.

Thankfully, the decision wasn’t to prove costly.

Sandro support

Tonali’s dip in form is a talking point, for sure.

Is he unsettled? Is it just a case of a simple mid-season loss of form?

His current run hasn’t been amazing. As a fully-fledged Italian international he will surely shrug this off soon, right?

Should have been more

In the end it could and should have been a wider winning scoreline.

United have won nine and drawn two of their last eleven home matches in all competitions, losing none of them.

Eddie Howe’s team won 3-0 against Benfica and in the other ten of these last eleven St James’ Park matches, Newcastle have scored exactly two goals in each of the ten.

Pretty much every home match we see NUFC looking capable of scoring (at least!) three or four goals and once they start taking more of these chances, we won’t then see defensive slip ups costing us points, as was the case against both Chelsea and Spurs.