BBC Radio 5 Live perform 180 degree shift in priorities after wrong result at St James’ Park | OneFootball

I gave my wife a lift to work this morning and had BBC Radio 5 Live on in the car.

It was getting towards the main news bulletin at 7.30am as I dropped her off.

Making my way back home I was interested to see what they’d have to say about the glorious Sunday at St James’ Park.

In the days leading up to the game, BBC Radio 5 Live and pretty much all other media, giving this Newcastle v Chelsea a massive build up.

The High Noon showdown that could massively impact who would get Champions League football, only three rounds of matches to go and Newcastle United and Chelsea tied on exactly the same number of points and goal difference.

It really couldn’t have been any tighter and with the end of the season so close, the outcome of this match could hardly have been any more important.

Anyway, I was only half listening to the BBC Radio 5 Live general news after 7.30am came around waiting for the sports section that would follow.

Here we go….

First and most important story from Sunday’s Premier League football fro BBC Radio 5 Live – Trent Alexander-Arnold was booed by some Liverpool fans. Seriously? It has been quite clear for a year or more that he was doing the dirty on his club, having refused to sign a contract extension and the worst kept secret he was joining Real Madrid. Liverpool fans understandably upset that ‘one of their own’ was cynically running down his contract so that he would earn (even more) fortunes for his personal wealth, by depriving Liverpool of any transfer fee to help strengthen the squad on his departure. As I say though, this was old news, Liverpool fans had already given Alexander-Arnold loads of stick for this, so a bit more was hardly newsworthy. Plus, even though it was a top against second match, Liverpool v Arsenal was a meaningless match with the title already decided and the Gunners already effectively guaranteed Champions League football.

Second up, speaking of meaningless matches. The second most important Sunday story from Sunday’s Premier League football for BBC Radio 5 Live, was the battle for….fourth bottom. Yes, fourth bottom West Ham winning 2-0 at sixth bottom Manchester United, meaning the Hammers climb to sixth bottom, whilst Man U are only kept out of the bottom four due to equally useless Spurs also losing (2-0 as well, home to Palace), meaning Tottenham are bottom four and Man U only one point above. The big talking point (for BBC Radio 5 Live) was that Ruben Amorim has now finally admitted how useless Man U AND how useless the job is that he is doing personally, Amorim saying that if Man U continue this season’s form into next season, then he will have to leave. Well Ruben, if Man U are as bad early next season as they have been for all these months so far under you, I don’t think you will be needing to make any decision yourself about leaving, that decision will be made by others for you!

Third up, BBC Radio 5 Live then switched attention to the City Ground when it came to Sunday’s action in the Premier League. Nottingham Forest only drawing in their derby at home to already relegated Leicester, yet another blow to their Champions League hopes, although with only four points from the last possible fifteen before Sunday’s game, the direction of travel has been obvious for some time. The big talking point however, were the actions of  Forest owner Marinakis, the bully and control freak confronting Nuno on the pitch after the final whistle. Beyond ridiculous.

Fourth up on BBC Radio 5 Live regarding Sunday’s Premier League action? Nothing. Yes, nothing.

Embarrassed laughter as he said it, the BBC Radio 5 Live presenter saying something along the lines of; “You might be a little surprised we aren’t talking about the Newcastle v Chelsea match but don’t worry, loads of stuff on the BBC Sport website that you can read about there!”

It wasn’t a crash the car type of moment but I was thinking, I honestly can’t believe what I have just heard.

Day after day, BBC Radio 5 Live (and the rest of the media) have been building up this Newcastle v Chelsea clash as a massive match in deciding the Champions League race, where any winner would become a huge favourite to make it, whilst any loser in major trouble.

This Newcastle United win over Chelsea was by a million miles the big story from Sunday’s Premier League. With then Forest failing to win and what happened after the final whistle at the City Ground, a clear second biggest story.

Then a toss up between the (non-)stories of Trent Alexander-Arnold getting booed (yet again!) by Liverpool fans and Amorim admitting Man U are rubbish. Man U had lost 10 of their previous 19 Premier League matches and only won four of the 19, three of those four against relegated clubs! So losing to West Ham on top of that is hardly headline news!

It doesn’t add up

The fact that the Newcastle v Chelsea match was the massive main Premier League story ahead of Sunday, then afterwards the result isn’t worth talking about, well, it doesn’t really add up, does it?

It is almost as though Sunday at St James’ Park ended up with the ‘wrong’ result in the eyes of BBC Radio 5 Live.

Put it this way, does anybody honestly believe that if yesterday’s game had ended Newcastle 0 Chelsea 2, that BBC Radio 5 Live would have deemed it not worth talking about whatsoever?

I actually would say for certain that they would not only have talked about it this morning, it would have been THE lead story when it came to the sports news on BBC Radio 5 Live.

If you don’t believe me, just go back a week and to the ridiculously over the top reaction from BBC Radio 5 Live (and others) to Chelsea defeating champions Liverpool. They were so excited that they kept ‘forgetting’ to mention that Arne Slot left out most of his best players, the entire midfield amongst six outfield changes to the first choice team that had clinched the title in the previous match a week earlier against Spurs.

In the build up to Sunday’s game, the universal media narrative was that this was a now super confident in-form Chelsea hitting form at the perfect time and they were going to be able to go to a faltering Newcastle United and sweep them aside.

BBC Radio 5 Live and others were very selective in choosing which form to point to. Desperate to only point to the last three games, where Chelsea had won against Liverpool reserves and got lucky in both a 1-0 win at home to Everton and a 2-1 away win at Fulham when Chelsea had trailed until the 83rd minute. Newcastle meanwhile had won 3-0 against Ipswich, drawn a tough away match at Brighton, lost an even tougher away game at Villa.

The bigger, more realistic form though, was that Chelsea had only won one Premier League away game in five and a half months, whilst Newcastle were looking to make it six PL home wins in a row.

It is also a fact that now Chelsea have failed to win 12 of their last 20 Premier League matches and the only win in those 20 they have had against a team now top half of the Premier League, was against Liverpool reserves. In contrast, the last ten games in all competitions have now seen Newcastle win eight of the ten and only lose one.

Does it really matter?

I would say, yes and no.

Of course, the only really important thing is that Newcastle United win their matches.

However, there is a total lack of respect for Newcastle United that runs throughout a media that massively favours London and the North-West.

Yes, of course NUFC usually gets some coverage of what is happening at our club, BUT it is on nothing like on the scale that it should be getting.

Imagine if say Man U, Chelsea, or Spurs were achieving what Eddie Howe has done this season, performing miracles with such a small squad and PSR issues meaning no new first team faces in the last three transfer windows?

You only have to look at the huge media overreaction when the likes of Chelsea or Man U win the odd big match. The coverage is totally out of proportion to what they have actually achieved.

Eddie Howe will quietly get on with the job and hopefully the Champions League qualification is ticked off ASAP.

Then we can all look forward to a summer transfer window where Newcastle United are now back in play, we have done the hard yards these last three transfer windows and now the other clubs (and the media!) worrying just what Eddie Howe may achieve next season if landing three or more first team contenders this summer.