So then a week really is a long time in football isn't it?
Seven days on from that excuse for a football match at Pride Park, Newcastle show us they can do the business when they want to.
Sorry to keep banging on about Monday but we really were poor and this just makes it more baffling.
There was plenty of stick flying about after Derby but perhaps that has been justified.
We already know about Derby getting battered from pillar to post against Liverpool and Spurs, but now Arsenal join the list with a crisp 5-0 job - where as Newcastle stumble to a 1-0 defeat!
That meant that Newcastle really did have to get all three points against West Ham but they did it, and they did it professionally.
West Ham still had their moments and if we are honest you couldn't deny them if they had picked up a point.
Thankfully that didn't happen and the final score could have been even better from a Toon point of view, especially when Oba Martins missed an open goal towards the end.
By that time though the Nigerian had already rolled the ball across the face of goal in unselfish manner to set up Charles N'Zogbia at Gallowgate, who completed the win with a third after he'd earlier supplied Mark Viduka with two fine assists.
Yet amazingly, Sam Allardyce now has the problem, surely a welcome one, of where the heck does he put Zoggy now?
To be fair, the teamsheet at Arsenal will be all over the place tomorrow with several changes expected not least due to the absence of Michael Owen.
But with Jose Enrique now firmly on the scene does Sam revert to 4-4-2 with the Spaniard on the left, James Milner on the right and Alan Smith in his proper role as a striker with Owen out?
Certainly this shape is much more balanced and even though my coaching badge is still very much in the post, you have to say that Zoggy and Milner providing the bullets for any two of Martins, Owen, Viduka, Smith or even Shola kills two birds with one stone.
The first being that it keeps the opposition on the back foot, especially at home and the second, it's entertaining.
Oh yeah, getting the ball in or around that six yard area usually leads to goals too with all three scored from that area against the Hammers.
Overall a great day, Lee Bowyer was quiet as a mouse, Craig Bellamy didn't fancy it and Nobby wasn't selected along with the unfit Scott Parker.
So with Arsenal reserves away next, Newcastle can go there in confident frame of mind.
Don't forget Arsenal's second string were actually 1-0 up in the FINAL last year but with Wenger clearly focused on the Premier League and finally bringing the Champions League to North London, perhaps this could be our year to get somewhere in Carling Cup...
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