Newcastle cannot sell ‘ideal’ Arsenal signing after funding phenomenal Forest – 3pm Blackout

Arsenal must be told where to stick it by Newcastle if they come calling over Alexander Isak. The Magpies have already boosted Nottingham Forest enough.

Brentford 0-2 Nottingham Forest: Bees have their home comforts eradicated
Fair play to Nottingham Forest, who have offset the ordinarily mortal embarrassment of being the only team to lose to Manchester City since October 26 by single-handedly ruining two otherwise imperious home records.

When they ransacked Anfield in September it felt like the sort of quaint result the start of the season can throw up. Forest were brilliant and entirely deserved to beat Liverpool but there was no sense the two teams would be in direct competition for places come May.

Yet in bringing to an end this phenomenal Brentford home record, Forest have established themselves as legitimate Champions League qualification contenders in December.

Brentford were conquered in much the same way as Liverpool before them: with organisation in defence, purpose in attack and a unbreakable collective belief and team spirit. There is beauty in the apparent simplicity with which Forest are operating, even if it obviously requires an unthinkable amount of work, effort, time and money to achieve.

Ola Aina and Anthony Elanga, the goalscorers, were salvaged from the Chelsea and Manchester United talent bin and recycled into £50m players. Neco Williams and Chris Wood would not attract the same sort of fee but both have been restored to more effective factory settings at the City Ground after varying struggles at Liverpool and Newcastle.

The Magpies have certainly helped fund this rise. Matz Sels struggled to break into the Newcastle setup in the Championship and financial malpractice forced the sale of Elliot Anderson; both have been crucial for Forest and were excellent against Brentford.

But knitting together this merry band of misfits is perhaps the greatest example of all. Nuno was not wanted by many when he replaced Steve Cooper, his reputation having taken a hit at Spurs and in the latter days of his Wolves reign. Almost a year to the day since he inherited a team fourth from the bottom, they are third from the top. It is a remarkable story and the final chapter isn’t even close.

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Ipswich 0-4 Newcastle: Alexander the great leading Magpies’ revival
“The missing ingredient is that you deliver against whoever you’re playing,” said Eddie Howe earlier this month of a Newcastle side who before this weekend had won more points against teams in the top half (12) than the bottom (11).

It has been a strange season. The Magpies had put in their best league performances to draw with or beat Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and high-flying Nottingham Forest, disappointing against Everton, Crystal Palace and West Ham leading into a run of presentable fixtures, the likes of which they have nevertheless slipped up on recently: Leicester (h), Brentford (h), Ipswich (a).

Three wins from those games are a bare minimum Newcastle have struggled to consistently achieve. But 11 goals in eight days have lifted them into seventh and a domestic cup semi-final.

Alexander Isak might have discovered that “missing ingredient”. His goals this season had come against each member of the current top four, as well as teams with European ambitions in Brentford and Spurs. Then a decisive display against Leicester was followed up with a first Premier League career hat-trick to punish Ipswich.

Kieran McKenna’s side were in full self-destruction mode. Isak converted a half-cleared cross within 25 seconds, then finished confidently when Bruno Guimaraes pounced upon a poor Aro Muric ball to Dara O’Shea on the stroke of half-time.

Jacob Murphy thundered a shot in off the underside of the crossbar in between to continue his fine form, before a wonderful run and gorgeous dinked assist played Isak in for his third.

The claim from within Newcastle remains that no player is unsellable in this regime; Howe said a couple of weeks ago that “the days when teams don’t sell big players are gone”. But Isak is gold dust as a prolific, multi-faceted centre-forward so perfectly suited to the Premier League.

Arsenal would sign him “in an ideal world”, Chelsea are regularly linked and Liverpool supporters seem desperate for them to interrupt any conversation when Isak is the subject. But while Newcastle may feel they “can’t guarantee” certain exits in the transfer market, Isak is worth making an exception for.

West Ham 1-1 Brighton: Seagulls left mired in mid-table
Five games without a Premier League win is nothing particularly new for Brighton – Roberto De Zerbi’s only full season on the south coast included two such sequences – but it is a worrying trend to emerge under Fabian Hurzeler.

Three points from Southampton, Fulham, Leicester, Crystal Palace and West Ham is a miserable return which has handily undermined any talk of Champions League glass ceilings being smashed this season. When Brighton beat Manchester City before the November international break they were six points from the summit; six games later they are closer in terms of points to a poor West Ham side than they are the top four.

But there is a familiar feeling of wastefulness. Across those five games Brighton have had 80 shots and conceded 50. While not quite at the xG-baiting levels of peak Potterball, there is a clear need for Hurzeler to try something different. The absence of Danny Welbeck should not negatively impact a team this heavily in big 2024.

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