Newcastle United suffered another frustrating defeat in the Premier League last night, going down 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace.
The Magpies headed into the game seeking to build on the much-improved performance they produced away at Everton on Saturday and make it back-to-back wins in the Premier League to pull clear of any relegation trouble. Steve Bruce deployed the same setup as he had done against the Toffees, but this time there wasn’t the same level of intensity and quality going forward.
Newcastle did dominate possession, which has been a rarity for them, with the Magpies having 61% of the ball. However, a lot of the time the build-up play was too slow and lacked the inventiveness to create enough clear-cut chances against a well-drilled Palace defence. The goals they gave away were both preventable and meant they could not build on their early lead.
This performance was not as bad as in other losses they have suffered this season, but this was nonetheless their eighth defeat in their last 12 Premier League matches.
That is simply not good enough and improvements in performances must start yielding more consistent results. Although there are things to build upon, it will still be a concern they could not take at least a point.
Here is how we rated the Magpies players following what was another frustrating defeat against Crystal Palace…
