Newcastle United were unable to sign off for the season at St James’ Park in style.
Brighton held Newcastle to a Premier League draw in their final home game of the season to leave the race for Europe open.
A draw, of course, is by no means a disaster but Eddie Howe’s side again started reasonably poorly, albeit they were somewhat unlucky not to have won given Anthony Gordon’s disallowed goal.
It was a day in which Howe’s team failed to really get going. Usually so full of attacking endeavour, things looked a little stale at times.
Few players would have summed that up better than Alexander Isak.
The striker has been so good all season that he’s been labelled “frightening” by teammate Kieran Trippier.
Still, it was a rare off-day for Isak, who was substituted in the second-half.
Speaking after the game, Howe shared why.
Alexander Isak injury update after Newcastle’s draw with Brighton
Howe confirmed (via Andy Sixsmith on X, formerly Twitter) that Isak was feeling unwell.
The Newcastle boss added that it was obvious the striker just wasn’t at his very best.
“Alex wasn’t feeling very well yesterday so took the decision to look after him with a 3 game week. You could see he wasn’t at full tilt today,” he said.
Newcastle must now hope for injury boost against Manchester United
Newcastle still have a job to do if they are going to finish in the top six and they will surely need to win at Manchester United on Wednesday if they are to confirm that status.
Already missing Callum Wilson for the game with Brighton, Howe can ill-afford to go into that game without any kind of centre-forward.
Without those two and the task looks very difficult, even if Newcastle have already won at Old Trafford this season while also beating the Red Devils at St James’ Park.
Let’s hope for good news on them both in the coming days…
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