Well I didn’t see that coming! I’ll be honest, when I saw the team selection I was shocked and extremely disappointed. No Keane, Alonso or Riera? Kuyt on his own up front again? Lucas for Alonso? Babel starting despite the awful form he’s been in? Rafa took a huge gamble here because if it hadn’t worked out he’d have been absolutely battered. It did work out though, and then some so well done to him.

This was easily the best we’ve played all season, especially in the first 45 minutes when we absolutely blitzed Newcastle and could have scored eight or nine with a bit more composure in front of goal. Shay Given performed heroics to keep the score down, but that opening half an hour especially we were absolutely rampant. I’m not taking anything away from our performance, as we were brilliant for most of the game, but even the most blinkered of reds would have to say that Newcastle made it easy for us.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a side stand off and let us play as much as the Geordies did. None of our players were ever under pressure when they had the ball, and I’ll bet that Steven Gerrard has never had so much room to play in since he was playing for his school team. Even then he was probably marked more closely than Newcastle managed. They committed just two fouls in the entire first half, and one of them was a complete accident as their player slipped over and crashed into one of our lads. Not what you expect from a team under the charge of Joe Kinnear, and he must have been livid at the break.

Gerrard completely ran them ragged, and Kuyt was fantastic when it came to getting hold of the ball and playing in the runners such as Gerrard, Babel and Benayoun. However, whenever Dirk received the ball, he was never under any pressure and had time to control it and lay it off. Again, take nothing away from him, he was superb, but Newcastle’s defending was horrific. Dossena could go there and be their best defender.

Every single time we attacked we looked like we’d score, and it was a minor miracle that they held out as long as they did. Chance after chance came and went, as poor finishing (from Hyypia and Gerrard especially) and fine goalkeeping kept Newcastle level. It had to come eventually though, and when it did it was worth the wait. Lovely football, Mascherano played in Yossi, and he showed great awareness to cut it back to Gerrard who scored via the inside of the post.

It was amazing how much room we were given, but what was even more amazing was how badly Newcastle were at defending our corners. We’re not known for the quality of our set pieces, but every ball into their box looked like it would lead to a goal. Hyypia had a few chances, and scored from one of them (fantastic header), but Lucas went close a couple of times too and I’ve honestly never seen anything like that first half.

Newcastle weren’t actually that bad when they had the ball, but it was very difficult for them as we were doing the exact thing they weren’t. You look at how Mascherano and Lucas put pressure on the ball, and made sure there was no space between our midfield and back four, and you look at how well organised we are when we don’t have the ball, and for me that is our biggest strength.

Many of us – myself definitely included – have focussed a lot on the things that Rafa has not been doing too well, and although it’s fair game to point out the occasional lack of ambition in our attacking play at home, and some of the bizarre selections and substitutions, equally you have to say that when it comes to having a team organised and difficult to play against, we’re second to none. That’s Rafa’s strength. He could take a team of really crap players, and make them very difficult to beat due to the scientific approach he has to his coaching (he won the CL with players like Traore and Biscan playing vital roles).

We’re well drilled, we work hard and everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing when we don’t have the ball. Some people get all sensitive when it’s pointed out that they haven’t played very well for most of this season. It’s true though, at least in an attacking sense. We’ve not been pleasing on the eye in most games we’ve played, but we’ve still managed to get to the top of the league and that’s because of the organisation we have and how difficult we are to play against.

This was one of the very few occasions in which we’ve really looked the part going forward, and at the risk of being accused of pissing on people’s chips I have to say a big reason for that was the complete ineptitude of the Geordies. Not that I care, I really, really enjoyed this game and it’s impossible not to have been impressed with how we performed. I just think a lot of it was because Newcastle were so tactically inept and we won’t find it this easy against anyone else this season, with the possible exception of when we go to West Brom.

But it really doesn’t matter how shite Newcastle were, because this win will have really done a lot for the players’ confidence. Not least people like Lucas and Babel. I thought Babel did ok without being anywhere near his best, but clearly he’s severely lacking in confidence right now, and his reaction to his goal said a lot for me. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, it was just pure relief for him. Hopefully he can sort himself out, because last season as an impact sub he was a match winner. This season we haven’t seen that, but if he can make the same contribution off the bench that he did last term, then that’s a huge weapon for us to have.

As for Lucas, I thought he was absolutely brilliant against Newcastle. Man of the match for me, he did everything right and could have had a hat-trick. Something seems to have changed with Lucas in the last few weeks, he seems to be trying more things and getting forward more. It’s like the shackles have come off and he’s playing his own game. He was excellent in Eindhoven and even better in this game. However, in both games he was allowed time and space to play in, and he won’t always have that playing in England, least of all in tight home games when the onus is on us to attack.

I’d imagine Lucas will play next week at Preston, and that’s probably a bigger test of him than this game was, as Preston will be in his face and won’t give him time on the ball. He’ll surely take a lot of confidence from how he played at St James’ though, and hopefully he can kick on from this and show his worth.

In the second half especially he really caught the eye. The pass to set up Gerrard’s second was sublime, and he was desperately unlucky not to get one himself late on when Given saved his header.

That chance came after some brilliant play down the left by Insua, who had another quietly effective game and is doing all he can to make that spot his own now. I think in a big game, especially away from home, I’d still go with the experience of Aurelio (fitness permitting), but Insua really deserves to stay in on current form.

The list of positives from this game is lengthy. Everyone played well, and we also welcomed Skrtel back into the fold. Great to have him back, but with Sami still performing to the same impeccably high standards he set in his prime, and Agger looking more and more like his old self with each passing week now, Rafa is going to have some real headaches selecting his back four. Carragher has done himself no favours by playing so well at right back, and he may have to stay there for a while now.

Maybe we’ll see 3-5-2 used a bit more in the coming weeks, as with the personnel we have it really seems to suit us. We looked really good playing 442 against Bolton, and the 4231 is really effective when we have Torres available, so Rafa has plenty of options.

The only slight negative from the Newcastle game for me was the treatment of Keane. He will have been flying after three goals from his previous two games, but will have been back on the floor again after this. Not starting him was one thing, I mean he did seem to be suffering a bit of cramp at the end of the Bolton game so I can see the logic in benching him, but not putting him on when there were clearly goals to be had doesn’t make sense to me, especially when the vastly inferior N’Gog is getting on ahead of him.

But that’s a minor gripe, and overall this was a fantastic day for us, topped off by Fulham’s late equaliser against Chelsea. We will start 2009 with a three point lead at the top of the table, and with Torres still to come back having hardly really played for us so far.

The main worry I have about our ability to stay there is the lack of quality on the bench. Most of the time we are bringing on the out of form Babel and the willing but limited El Zhar. N’Gog is getting plenty of run outs too, and none of these are going to make enough impact coming off the bench to win games for us when we need it (unless Babel sorts himself out of course).

The problem is that we don’t have much dosh to spend in the window. We’ll probably end up with Heskey, which will depress the shit out of me, but if possible I’d like to see us get a striker (not Heskey, personally I’d take Owen in a heartbeat) and a pacy winger to either start or come off the bench. If we could add those to what we have, and if Torres can put his injuries behind him, then we will take some catching. Assuming of course that we have put our poor home form behind us. Away from home we look like we’ll win every game on current form, although I can’t see many being as easy as this one at St James’.

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