A febrile Monday night atmosphere, a red card, 10 men fighting back from 2-0 down to nearly snatch a draw, and a 16-year-old grabbing a 100th-minute winner.
Gameweek 2’s final fixture was an absolute cracker, a match that was, as the kids say these days, “pure Barclays”.
GORDON BAN – OSULA TO STEP UP?
Their main striker is striking, their back-up forward left in the summer and now they’ve lost the third-choice option to suspension.
Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon (£7.5m) will be out until Gameweek 6 after his red card for serious foul play on Monday night.
Should Alexander Isak (£10.4m) still not be a selectable option and a new striker is not yet through the door, Will Osula (£5.5m) will hope to finally get his chance.
The youngster came on in the second half of the Liverpool game, notching Newcastle’s equaliser with a well-taken finish.
“We’re running out of options in that position. But again, I have to look at the positives. Where I’m sat here now in this moment, I can’t go to the negative world. So, Will Osula came on today, scored a goal, did well, was very pleased with him. So, it’s a big opportunity potentially for him.
“I think [Osula] has done himself no harm today. He scored a vital goal for us. Took it really well. Led the line well albeit we were down to 10 men and that’s a difficult moment for the team.” – Eddie Howe on his centre-forward options
The lack of a proper striker has proven costly for Newcastle so far. The better team in Gameweeks 1 and 2, they’ve got just one point to their name after spurning chance after chance.
Gordon missed two efforts from close range in the first half, for instance, and you can’t help but wonder what the end result would have been had a certain Swede been on the field to finish those opportunities instead.
“Defnitely the quality of Alex, I think he would have made a difference in the two games. I don’t think there’s any denying that.” – Eddie Howe
Newcastle’s directors reportedly visited Isak yesterday, so watch this space for an update on the striker’s future.
TRIPLE NEWCASTLE INJURY BLOW + MAC ALLISTER LATEST
It wasn’t just Gordon’s red card or Liverpool’s last-minute winner that proved costly.
Newcastle lost three of their starting XI to injury, and all of them are big doubts for Gameweek 3.
Sandro Tonali (£5.5m) injured his shoulder in the second half, while Joelinton (£6.0m) seemed to be holding his thigh when limping off. Fabian Schar (£5.0m) then came off with a concussion late on.
“They’re genuine injuries. They’ve come off in the middle of the game and that’ll be a huge blow to us. Joey doesn’t look great, to be honest, especially when the signal was so early when he went down. Sandro, yeah, again doesn’t look good. Couldn’t move his arm. He said he wanted to stay on but wasn’t functioning properly. Obviously, we lose Anthony through suspension and Fabian through concussion.” – Eddie Howe
It raises the prospect of two summer signings and a £4.5m FPL midfielder – Jacob Ramsey (£5.5m), Malick Thiaw (£5.0m) and Lewis Miley (£4.5m) – getting a start at Elland Road this Saturday. All three came on against Liverpool.
As for Liverpool, they were without Alexis Mac Allister (£6.5m). Initially, it was reported that he was attending the birth of his child – which was news to Mr and Mrs Mac Allister.
As it turns out, an injury ruled the Argentina international out.
“We are hoping [he will be available for Gameweek 3], yes. He had to leave the training pitch two days ago and that would not even be the biggest problem if he had had a proper pre-season, but he missed out for so many weeks.” – Arne Slot on Alexis Mac Allister
In a bigger boost for the Reds, Conor Bradley (£5.0m) was back on the bench after recovering from injury. He came on in the closing stages after a superb performance from stand-in right-back Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m).
WIRTZ GHOSTS, MORE LATE SALAH SALVATION
Sky pundit Jamie Carragher said after full-time that this was “one of the worst performances you’ll ever see from a winning team and one of the best performances you’ll ever see from a losing team”.
Liverpool had only five shots all game, despite playing half the match with an extra man. Indeed, from the point that Hugo Ekitike (£8.6m) put them 2-0 up to Rio Ngumoha’s (£4.5m) stoppage-time winner, they didn’t have a single attempt.
While Ekitike emerged with more credit and indeed now sits top of the FPL forwards’ points table, it was a collectively poor Liverpool display. Even Ryan Gravenberch‘s (£5.5m) opener from distance came out of nowhere, with Newcastle well on top in the opening half an hour.
Florian Wirtz (£8.4m) again seemed to struggle with the tempo of a full-blooded Premier League game, while Mohamed Salah (£14.5m) was anonymous. Once again, though, the Egyptian found a way to points, assisting – via Szoboszlai’s excellent dummy – Ngumoha’s winner.
Perhaps winning in such circumstances is a good sign for the Reds. It’s hard to imagine them being this poor again, and indeed the context of the game has to be factored in, with St James’ Park rocking amid the backdrop of Isak-gate.
Still, it shows there is lots of work to be done to get this new-look side to gel – and FPL managers may not be averse to fielding their Arsenal attackers in Gameweek 3 off the back of this performance from the reigning champions.
“When we had the ball, we kept it quite long and I was hoping for us to do more, to create more, because our attackers were not patient enough.
“Every time when we were quite calm in the build-up but then we ended with our attackers [where] they should keep the ball longer and every time [they] forced a pass. The ball went behind and then we had to defend a long goal-kick again.” – Arne Slot
REMEMBER THE NAME
What a night for the 16-year-old Ngumoha. If you’ve followed Liverpool in pre-season, you would have been aware of his superb performances off the left flank. The teenager racked up three goals and two assists over the summer, indeed.
For Slot to throw him on here when Liverpool were floundering at 2-2 shows the faith that the Reds have in the youngster. And with Luis Diaz gone, regular minutes – if mostly as a substitute for Cody Gakpo (£7.5m) – are likelier to arrive.
DEFCON DUO DELIVER AGAIN
Two defenders emerged with defensive contribution (DC/DefCon) points in this game, and no surprise who they were.
Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) and Dan Burn (£5.0m) were their respective clubs’ leading performers for DC points last season. They’re off to a flyer in 2025/26, too, with DefCon points in both Gameweeks 1 and 2.
Van Dijk, indeed, overtook Marco Senesi (£4.5m) as the leading defender for defensive contributions this season so far:
Bruno Guimaraes (£6.5m), who was sensational in midfield and nodded in Newcastle’s first goal, also banked DC points.
