Brighton ended Newcastle United’s excellent run of form with a hard-thought 1-0 Premier League win at The Amex.
Newcastle United were brought back down to earth with a bump on Sunday afternoon. Going into the weekend, Rafael Benitez were sitting pretty in fourth place after winning three successive Premier League games so an insipid performance at Brighton, for whom Tomer Hemed scrambled home the only goal of the match, has rather deflated the recent optimism.
And while Benitez has taken on almost Kevin Keegan levels of popularity on Tyneside, even the most ardent Rafa enthusiast could be forgiven for wondering why summer signing Jacob Murphy was left on the bench with The Magpies in need of a goal.
A £12 million arrival from Norwich City (Sky Sports), Murphy has only played 71 minutes of league football for Newcastle so far with Benitez bringing on Dwight Gayle, Jonjo Shelvey and Jesus Gamez instead as the game drifted away from them.
Furthermore, their inability to find a goal against Chris Hughton’s side does little to dispel the idea that, when Matt Ritchie is not on song, Newcastle struggle for inspiration.
The former Bournemouth winger was far from his best against The Seagulls, finding a man with less than half of his attempted crosses, but Benitez still did not turn to a speedy and creative attacker who scored and assisted a combined total of 15 goals last season.
It is easy to criticise in hindsight but, even at the time, Benitez’s refusal to throw Murphy into the fray to liven up an attack lacking in ideas seemed a little counterproductive.
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