Trippier myth, Tindall and £3m gem - Five takeaways from Newcastle 5-0 Palace

Newcastle United hammered Crystal Palace 5-0 on Wednesday evening, continuing the excellent post-cup final form, by dismantling a side who until last weekend had gone seven games unbeaten in all competitions.

Goals from Jacob Murphy (an absolute ripper), a Guehi o.g, Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schär, and Alexander Isak put the shine on a sublime team performance. Nick Pope also contributed with a big penalty save at 1-0 - a decision which was a joke in my opinion.

Here are our key takeaways from the game:

• 1. A total team performance

  
  

The team truly purred on Wednesday night as they tore into Palace, who were lucky to get away with a score of just 5-0, and all of this without the manager in the dugout too. Some of the football played by the team was first class - Isak could’ve scored a hat-trick, Tonali should’ve scored, and a lads created a hatful of other chances.

The midfield is just clicking at the minute with Sandro Tonali leading the charge with some of the best football he has played in his career, arguably of a similar level he produced when leading Milan to the Scudetto. Behind Isak he is undoubtedly the second most important player in the team.

Jacob Murphy is frankly putting up ridiculous numbers (another goal and assist) and his goal was reminiscent of Tonali’s just a couple of weeks ago. He’s morphed into an elite winger this season (playing on his natural side too) and he is delivering game after game after game.

• 2. Tindall: the best assistant manager in the league?

  
  

I can’t think of many better! But in all seriousness he deserves huge credit for having the nouse and the ability to just continue on with the show.

With Eddie Howe still continuing to recover from pneumonia, Tindall has delivered two outstanding (and completely ruthless) attacking displays in the space of four days to cement our place as favourites to qualify for the Champions League. Of course, it’s all built on the back of Howe’s hard work and design, but Tindall and all the coaches have really stepped up in what will undoubtedly be a difficult personal situation for them.

• 3. Trippier’s ‘demise’ greatly exaggerated

  
  

Captain fantastic is back. At times last season the first signing of the PIF era appeared to be finished, he made a lot of high profile mistakes and cost the team some points and places in cup quarter finals.

Fast forward to 16th March and Trippier is helping us win our first trophy in 56 years and has now been instrumental in six wins in a row propelling us up to third. His leadership is unmatched, he reads the game like the experienced pro he is, and he will probably go down as legend at the club when he eventually hangs up his boots.

34 is getting on a bit for a fullback - but if he can continue to play at this level - here’s hoping he doesn’t retire anytime soon. What makes it even more sensational is that we already have his long term replacement at the club and he is tearing it up at LB too.

• 4. He only cost £3m

  
  

Fabian Schär is another player who will more than likely go down as a club legend when he retires (which he will undoubtedly now do wearing Black and White after signing a new one year deal) but what he certainly is is the best Premier League bargain signing ever.

£3million for a player of his quality, who Steve Bruce didn’t play and thought Ciaran Clark was better than, a player who shots from halfway, scores bangers from range and nods in beautiful headers from clever free kick moves, all from centre back and for just £3m! Mind boggling - Schär would be worth £75m plus if he was 10 years younger in the current climate, there’s no doubt about it.

With eight years service under his belt too, the man is just a sensational footballer and he was exactly that on Wednesday night - and Jefferson Lerma tried to knock him out too and completely failed.

• 5. VAR is still a joke and Nick Pope

  
  

What happened to not re-refereeing matches? VAR is a joke, the ref was a joke, but we still dismantled Palace. It was never a penalty for my money as Nick Pope did what thousands of goalkeepers have done before him and clips the Palace player on his way out to punch the ball (which was admittedly not very clean).

But Pope stood up to Eze’s ridiculous penalty taking routine and make a big save in the context of the match at 1-0. Pope is another player who’s demise has been talked about by fans (including myself) but since the cup final again he has been back to his solid best. I particularly enjoyed his nonchalant big arm save from Kamada’s late near post drive.

Teams just can’t live with United at the moment (who were unchanged yet again on Wednesday night) and we couldn’t be in better form going into a huge game against Aston Vile on Saturday.

Keep the faith. HWTL