Halftime: Newcastle 1 - 0 Liverpool

In what has become a familiar if irritating sight lately in the Premier League, Newcastle conceded the bulk of early play... well... the first 30 minutes or so. Liverpool had almost all of the ball, most of the goalscoring opportunities and all of the momentum. Around the 30 minute mark or so, however, some sort of switch was flicked and Newcastle stopped hoofing the ball unnecessarily and began playing the ball around on the floor as we know they can... and it paid dividends. The final 15 minutes of the half saw a completely different Toon side and a completely different match.

It bears noting that James Perch went out through injury and the Newcastle resurgence coincided with the introduction of Danny Simpson on the right and the move of Vurnon Anita into CDM. As the lads began to pass the ball around and play actual football, the tide of play turned to Newcastle and it was Hatem Ben Arfa who provided the bit of magic that the Toon Army were looking for, abusing Jose Enrique to turn provider - sending a perfect cross to Yohan Cabaye who smashed a lovely goal into the upper 90 that Brad Jones had no chance at.

If we see more of the first half-hour Toon, this one goal lead will disappear rather quickly. We'll need more of the last 15 minutes Newcastle - the control and the attacking impetus if we want to ultimately prise the 3 points away from Liverpool.