If there is a civil war raging in the background, it seems to be suiting Newcastle very well. For all the tension between the manager Eddie Howe and the sporting director Paul Mitchell, they have won three and drawn one of their opening four games of the season, leaving them level with Arsenal in second – which, given the hearing Manchester City face, may end up actually meaning first.
It was not a perfect display from Newcastle, far from it. A lot of the limitations of their squad were clear, but Eddie Howe took decisive action with a triple substitution at half-time and had his reward as one of the players he brought on, Harvey Barnes, scored a brilliant winner, cutting in from the left and smashing a 25-yard drive inside the far post.
For Wolves, the sense of anxiety is mounting. They have won just one of their last 14 Premier League games, taken just six points form the last 42 available, and, while the fixture list has not been especially kind at the start of this season, one point from four games and, more particularly, the way they have played, is enough to suggest this could be a season of struggle. There were enough promising signs on the counter-attack to suggest they should survive, but plenty of teams have found that ruts, once got into, are not easily departed.
It was a dank grey afternoon to match the general mood, the brutalist School of Art looming through the murk above the Sir Jack Hayward Stand like a terrible warning of utopias past, dominating the Wolverhampton skyline in a way Jørgen Strand Larsen has yet to manage.
Larsen, though, is far more than his extreme height and he played a key role in Wolves’ opener, which came as a double surprise in that it was the home side who took the lead, and in the quality of the move. It began with Sean Longstaff’s pass being intercepted then, as Wolves broke, Larsen held off Dan Burn before crossing low. João Gomes stepped over it, wrongfooting Newcastle’s retreating defence, leaving Mario Lemina a simple finish.
Newcastle had looked the livelier against a distinctly rickety Wolves back four. They might not have let in six as they did against Chelsea in their last home game, but the issues have not been rectified; that’s 11 goals conceded now in four games. A simple through-ball from Alexander Isak was enough to release Jacob Murphy early on, but Sam Johnstone, on his home debut, tipped over, then Anthony Gordon wobbled in off the left flank past the inexplicably compliant Nelson Semedo and Yerson Mosquera and hit his shot against the far post.
Gordon had impressed for England during the international break and he had another dangerous game, but the concern before half-time was that he was responsible for the vast majority of Newcastle’s attacking spark. Isak has not yet been at his best this season, while right wing was an area Newcastle sought, without success, to strengthen in the summer. Barnes has looked dangerous when coming off the bench but, like Gordon, he prefers to the left.
Eddie Howe’s solution, perhaps in part conditioned by a whack in the face Isak took just before half-time, was to make a triple change at the break, with Barnes replacing Isak and Gordon moving into the centre. Joelinton, booked for a frustrated challenge towards the end of the first half, and Longstaff were also withdrawn, with Sandro Tonali and Joe Willock coming on.
The pattern, though, remained similar to the first half: Newcastle with the ball and Wolves with the threat. Larsen hit the post eight minutes after the break as he ran on to a nicely weighted Lemina pass.
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Matheus Cunha also then hit the post after getting behind Lewis Hall which, as is the way of football, instantly raised the suspicion that Wolves would pay for their failure to take their chances.
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Sure enough, with a quarter of an hour remaining, a speculative Fabian Schär shot glanced off Craig Dawson and looped over Johnstone’s dive to equalise. But if that was fortunate, the winner, five minutes later, was exceptional. So too was the right-handed save Nick Pope pulled off in injury-time to keep out an acrobatic volley from Cunha.
Howe’s job now is to work out if there is a way for Gordon and Barnes both to play together with Isak. But for now, after the anticlimactic nature of last season, the comparative lack of action in the transfer market and the background rumblings, 10 points from four games represents an extremely positive start.
