The last 48 hours could not have gone much better for Newcastle United.
Our preparations for Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final kicked off with a massive morale-boosting win at West Ham on Monday night, featuring no injuries, a clean sheet and victory that left the team with a spring in their step once again.
Tuesday night saw Liverpool face PSG in the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie at Anfield and, from a Newcastle perspective, it could not have gone much better.
The main headline from last night’s Champions League action is that PSG dumped out Liverpool on Merseyside, winning a penalty shootout after misses from Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones followed a 1-0 win (1-1 on aggregate) for the Ligue 1 giants.
That in itself is a positive – they will be gutted to go out and looked shattered in added time as the game went on for 120 minutes – but they may have also lost at least one defender for Sunday’s final.
Ibrahima Konate could be fine, with Arne Slot indicating after the game that the big centre-back was forced off due to fatigue, but Trent Alexander-Arnold is now a serious doubt for this weekend’s game.
The right-back twisted his knee and ankle in an awkward fall midway through the second half and was immediately replaced by Jarrell Quansah; a centre-back by trade but Liverpool’s only available option with Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez both sidelined.
After the game, Arne Slot didn’t seem too hopeful on Trent’s injury saying: “I’d be surprised if he’s available on Sunday.”
So, not only was it a huge blow for the Reds to be dumped out at the end of a long and tiring two-legged affair with an impressive PSG side full of energy and pace, they look set to be without Alexander-Arnold at Wembley and have Konate to manage, too.
A few days ago, we were coming off the back of a pretty awful week. Lewis Hall and Sven Botman set to surgery, Anthony Gordon banned, out the FA Cup and dropping to 9th in the Premier League ahead of Monday’s trip to West Ham.
A few days on, we’ve beaten the Hammers to nil, moved back up the sixth in the league and came away from the London Stadium with fresh belief, a clean bill of health and no suspensions.
For Liverpool, they are out of the Champions League, looked shattered in extra-time and have lost their most creative force to injury, it seems.
The Reds have been a winning machine this season and there is, of course, every chance they are wounded animals this weekend, but it feels like the luck has been with us at the start of our biggest weak of the season. Let’s hope that continues!
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