Newcastle did respect the decision… did you watch the way the players and Howe didn’t have hissy fit? They said they “didn’t feel it was a pen but have to respect the referees call”

It was night and day compared to Arsenals reaction and the fans have rightfully got pissed off for a day or two. But the club itself while disappointed in the bad call won’t react like it’s some sort of conspiracy.

Newcastle had 10 squad members (and Elliot Anderson who’s u21 but a key squad member) out against Chelsea, we’ve got 2 games a week till Xmas.

Even with a decent 25 man squad we’re at bare bones, we named 4 keepers and mostly kids on our bench, and started a 17y/o…

There’s tough schedules and there’s ridiculous schedules. Next year’s changes to the champions league will add another burden for most clubs competing in that.

And then the double side of that is if you lose European football you can’t afford to expand your squad to much or have tonnes of players in a non Euro season who just won’t get enough football, so aside from teams who can stay in the top 3 regularly to build a massive squad, it just becomes a massive gamble on injuries.