CK Updates
Newcastle: More questions than answers as Eddie Howe’s men yet to catch fire this season
There have certainly been glimpses of what this team could be in recent weeks.
There was a devastating first-half display against Chelsea, a spirited hour away to Paris St-Germain and a fine opening half an hour or so at Anfield.
But games are not won in snatches.
It has been a frustration of the coaching staff that they have lacked the training time during an unrelenting run of fixtures to really work on things and piece it all together like they have during previous sticky spells.
Instead the players have come to rely on meeting rooms, analysis sessions and walk-throughs.
This is the reality of life at clubs who aspire to fight on multiple fronts, of course, but competing in four competitions was an unprecedented feat for Newcastle going into February.
The relentless nature of the schedule has had a knock-on effect on the squad – Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton, Tino Livramento and Fabian Schar are all currently sidelined, while Anthony Gordon hobbled off with a hamstring issue on Wednesday night.
It has also had an impact on the adaptation of Newcastle‘s summer signings who, aside from defender Malick Thiaw, are still finding their feet at the club.
Thiaw, Jacob Ramsey, Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa all joined in the final fortnight or so of a turbulent window, in which the club operated without a sporting director and missed out on a host of top targets.
Newcastle, remarkably, are still searching for a settled combination in the final third despite spending £179m on forwards.
Elanga enjoyed a lively second-half cameo at the Etihad, but Woltemade was substituted at half-time – having failed to score since December – while the rusty Wissa missed a host of good chances in both legs.
It leaves Newcastle with more questions than answers as they embark on a crunch run of fixtures.
“Where does that leave our season?” Howe asked. “We’re still fighting on several fronts.
“The games are coming thick and fast. There’s no let-up for us. We need to get back to winning ways as quickly as possible. It’s the only thing that gives you new energy.”
Going into the 2026 season, few people would have backed Zverev to win two Grand Slam tournaments, with the German having already lost three major finals in a career which looked in danger of not living up to expectation.
But injuries to his biggest rivals – Alcaraz missing the French Open and Wimbledon, with Sinner ruled out of the US Open – opened the door for Zverev.
A below-par Zverev scraped through the opening rounds at Flushing Meadows in a series of early-morning finishes, but he gradually improved over a fortnight where he did not play a top-20 opponent until Shelton.
Zverev had not lost to Shelton in their five previous meetings and immediately capitalised on a nervy start by his opponent.
Shelton double-faulted on break point in the first game of the match, handing over the type of initiative that opponents often struggle to wrestle back from Zverev.
Through the strength of his first serve, and his ability to unpick Shelton’s weaker backhand in the baseline exchanges, Zverev rolled through the opening set and clinched it when Shelton hit another double fault on set point.
Zverev continued to patiently draw mistakes from Shelton in the second set, but without being gifted a break when his only opportunity arrived in the fourth game.
He instead showed why he has a strong tie-break record with another nerveless display and, unlike in the 2020 US Open final when he lost from a two-set lead, kept his composure in the pressure moments to secure a commanding victory.
Addressing his team which is led by his father Alexander senior and brother Mischa, Zverev said: “We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title and now won two in the span of three months.
“I think God has seen how hard we have worked, how hard we have suffered and how much pain we went through.
“I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before.”
With Haaland’s goal settling the match, United were unsurprisingly disappointed by the decision.
“I think it was offside,” said Martinez. “And what I can’t understand is the rules. I want to be calm now, I want to control myself.
“It’s so hard because you lose a derby, you lose three points at home, and every season they’re [referees] coming to our club, they explain for one hour the rules, and they look so confident with that, and then after [there are] five or six people doing these kind of mistakes in the Premier League – it’s unacceptable.
“It’s the best league in the world, you have the best teams in the world, the best players in the world, and now we have to go home with this injustice.”
United boss Carrick also expressed his confusion.
“We put things in place in the game now, we have people in offices with all the screens for this decision,” he said.
“It’s more worrying about if that’s the interpretation of football now. If that’s the interpretation of not interfering in the game now, that’s really worrying for me. It’s a staggering explanation.
“The decision isn’t going to change the season, but it’s had a major impact on the game.”
Wayne Rooney, part of the BBC’s MOTD2 team, said: “Surely it’s offside. Martinez is impacted by Fernandez’s movement, and he is offside.”
Gary Neville said on Sky Sports: “I think we’ll see some sort of apology from the referee’s association, there’s no doubt Fernandez is playing that ball and is trying to put off Martinez. I think it’s one they’ll recognising they got wrong.”
Micah Richards added: “I think it’s been a bad day for referees. They got the Foden decision wrong and the Fernandez decision wrong. I think they got it so wrong but I don’t think it takes anything away from City’s performance.”
Meanwhile, City boss Maresca said: “I think it was onside clearly so it’s good.”
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe says the governing body’s stance on sanctions imposed on Russia will not change.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been banned from international track and field competition by World Athletics since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian Athletics Federation has filed a new claim with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) to challenge the sanctions imposed by World Athletics.
But Coe said: “Our position hasn’t changed. This isn’t about politics or passports, it’s about the integrity of competition.”
Russian Athletics says the ongoing sanctions “infringe on the organisation’s rights”, adding they “prevent it from fully representing the interests of Russian athletes on an international level”.
Should the Cas ruling come down in favour of Russian Athletics, the way could be opened for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the next Olympic Games, which will be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
Coe, who won two Olympic gold medals during a celebrated athletics career, has pledged to attend the Cas hearing to help present the case of World Athletics.
Speaking on Sunday at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, the 69-year-old Briton said: “From the age of 18, I believe that every position I’ve taken, whether it was during the creation of the first IOC athletes’ commission or positions I’ve personally taken, it’s about integrity and it’s about competition.
“That matters to me, so our position won’t change.”
Coe added that the issue needed to be “resolved” and that the overall objective was to have a “full complement of people on a global level competing in our sport”.
Russian Athletics executive director Boris Yaryshevsky, in an interview with the Russian TASS news agency last week, criticised Coe’s intention to attend the Cas hearing.
“It is very clear that he has something personal,” said Yaryshevsky.
“He is no longer speaking on behalf of World Athletics as a federation. He is speaking for himself, saying that he personally will go to court to defend this.
“I believe this is simply his personal position, not the position of World Athletics.”
The stance taken by World Athletics differs to that taken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as the governing bodies of numerous other sports.
The IOC provisionally lifted Russia’s suspension in July, potentially allowing the country to compete at the 2028 Olympics Games in Los Angeles.
Other sporting federations, including World Gymnastics, World Aquatics and World Boxing, have this year removed restrictions on Russian athletes competing.
Some Russian and Belarusian athletes competed as neutrals at both the 2024 Paris Games and this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan.
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