Newcastle United’s return to the Premier League got off to a relatively sour start at St. James’ Park.
Indeed, while there were reasons to be optimistic for the Toon Army, the loss to Tottenham Hotspur today was marred by injury concerns and the sending off of Jonjo Shelvey in the second half.
With Rafa Benitez’s squad already depleted after a frustrating summer window on Tyneside and, while the home side did a relatively good job in containing Spurs’ varied frontline, saw his options limited even further.
Both Paul Dummett and Florian Lejeune were forced off before the interval, meaning Jamaal Lascelles and Chancel Mbemba were brought on. The pair again managed to hold off for the north Londoners, though their task was made all the more difficult by Shelvey’s moment of madness.
Handed the armband for the day, the 25-year-old inexplicably stood on Dele Alli early into the second half, leaving his side with a mountain to climb.
Alli had the last laugh by opening the scoring, before Ben Davies capped off a great Tottenham move and doubled Spurs’ lead.
With all this in mind, here’s a look at how Newcastle fans reacted to Shelvey’s moment of madness.
Agent Shelvey #NUFC
— Jonnie Gorrie (@JonnieGorrie) August 13, 2017
Shelvey's fault otherwise Newcastle would have had a great chance of getting a point from this game #nufc
— Martin Lidbury (@martin_lidbury) August 13, 2017
Wey bit gutted by shelvey bieng stupid. But playing last years runners up 2 early injuries at the bk nd man dwn we havnt been to bad. #nufc
— Wes Welch (@wezwelch88) August 13, 2017
Hardly a surprise but until the Shelvey incident we were doing great. Hope he's ashamed but I somehow doubt it. Really frustrating #NUFC
— Amy 💙 (@geordiegalg) August 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/holistic_pickle/status/896731228748914692
https://twitter.com/ak28_hussain/status/896731249951346688
