da betsul： Jonjo Shelvey suffered an injury which kept him out of the Burnley defeat but there are positive signs that he could be back in contention to play against Crystal Palace.
What’s the latest?
da bwin： The midfielder missed out in the previous game with a calf strain, despite his protestations to the medical staff that he felt fit enough to play.
However, he has admitted that he is grateful his claims fell on deaf ears as it prevented the risk of him worsening his injury, which means he has missed one game as opposed to several.
Shelvey aims to be back in full training on Thursday and should he get through those sessions without his injury flaring up, then he may be in line to start against Crystal Palace on Saturday, and the Magpies could certainly do with his return.
Much-needed quality
Shelvey’s omission against the Clarets was understandable given Steve Bruce requires a lot of movement and hard work from his players, particularly against a high-intensity and physical team like Burnley.
The fact the 27-year-old didn’t take part in training in the early part of this week also indicates that he was far from being match fit, and therefore it was the correct decision to leave him out, especially with the festive period coming up.
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Newcastle were a lot worse without him, though, and returned to the form they showed a few weeks prior when they were struggling to score goals.
Dwight Gayle should have struck a late equaliser but there was a noticeable lack of creativity throughout, with the Magpies also showing less quality from set-pieces with Shelvey’s absence.
Sean Longstaff was a like-for-like replacement but his abysmal return of 67% pass accuracy and zero key passes underlined why Newcastle’s performance took such a dip.
He also didn’t provide the goal threat that Shelvey has possessed in recent weeks, and therefore a return against Crystal Palace this weekend should increase his side’s attacking threat, and thus their chances of getting back to winning ways.
Meanwhile, Gayle’s miss means Steve Bruce should seriously consider his future at the club…