Newcastle stay calm after chaotic Mitrovic two-touch penalty to keep the good times going

It was in many ways the exact type of win that could be used as evidence of Newcastle's rapid growth to the top flight.

It was precisely the kind of home game that any Big Six fan will experience, in which a very decent team from the next level comes up with a clear, well-executed plan and finds you the kind of day that inevitably happens from time to time. in time when you're not quite at your best for whatever reason.

And what you, as a great team, have to do in these games is find a way to win them anyway. That's what Arsenal couldn't do, much to their chagrin, against Newcastle a few weeks ago.

Newcastle, however, has found a way. Time is running out, they found, from Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson and Alexander Isak, a series of moments of clarity and calm in a game that largely lacked it. Isak declined the opportunity to take a low-percentage, high-risk popshot in favor of continuing the move. Trippier played a calm, well-weighted pass to Sean Longstaff to swing his cross. Wilson then returned the ball for Isak to acquiesce after the ball kindly snapped. It was, in all, about five seconds in 90 minutes where such composure was usually lacking.

Now, nowhere was this general lack of composure and composure more spectacularly evident than in Fulham's penalty. It was all a glorious slice of Barclays, with Newcastle's late winner the icing on the joke cake.

First, and this seems important, was it a penalty? We don't think that was the case. If anything, on replays it looked like a foul on Kieran Trippier rather than the other way around. But we also think Fulham had a better penalty cry around 30 seconds earlier. Do two half-decent penalty cries in the same passage of play equal one fully decent? According to the rules, no, apparently not. But Fulham got their penalty anyway.

After two penalty shouts resulted in a penalty, there were briefly two balls on the field and also a yellow card for Nick Pope for some reason. Then the main event. Two shouts, two balls then two touches from Aleksandar Mitrovic sent the ball spinning slowly and unnecessarily into Pope's net.

The brief celebrations were quickly cut short and there was something oddly amusing about watching Newcastle take an indirect free kick from their own penalty spot.

Even a goalless draw would have looked like something for Newcastle after a let go like that. But producing that legendary quality moment to settle a game until that moment defined by a moment of the highest farce made it another wonderful afternoon for Newcastle.

Their own dramatic improvement - which can be traced back quite far into last season - combines with the conflicts and assorted woes that have befallen Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea to put their project well ahead of schedule.