Wow, that was some game. The Championship is known for offering thrills and spills, but Norwich vs. Newcastle last night was quite the showing. The Magpies stole a point late on through Jamaal Lascelles after surrendering a first minute lead via an Ayoze Perez goal to the Canaries, who raced to a 2-1 advantage before 20 minutes had even been played with goals from Jacob Murphy and Cameron Jerome.

The point keeps Rafa Benitez’s boys from the North East clear at the top of the table and may well be looked back on as a vital result in their charge for the title or automatic promotion, with Brighton and even Huddersfield gaining on the Tynesiders.

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Although Lascelles has been praised for his heroic late contribution, Newcastle’s player of the night may well have been DeAndre Yedlin, who was amazing from right-back…

The American had more touches of the ball (91) than any other player on the pitch and created six chances – again, an on-pitch high – across the 90 minutes, while throwing in four tackles, which was the highest return of any Newcastle player. The formerÂSeattle Sounders defender also made 80% of his 51 passes stick, while completing six clearances to help keep his side in the game.

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Spanish giants Real Madrid have joined the race for Bayer Leverkusen ace Julian Brandt and will rival Liverpool for the youngster’s signature, The Daily Mail reports.

What’s the word?

20-year-old Julian Brandt is one of the finest prospects currently within German football and, with Jurgen Klopp’s connections within the Bundesliga, it’s unsurprising to see Liverpool linked with his services. However, they now face competition from Real Madrid.

Zinedine Zidane’s side are looking for a restructure in the coming years as a number of their most crucial players, like Luka Modric, are approaching their twilight years, whilst there is continuous speculation regarding the future of young duo James Rodriguez and Isco.

Both James and Isco have found first-team opportunities difficult to regularly come by at the Santiago Bernabeu and Brandt, due to his young age, may be a bit more patient when waiting for chances- and that could work in Real Madrid’s favour.

What about Liverpool?

Julian Brandt could perhaps expect more openings at Liverpool for first-team football but the young German has become accustomed to playing Champions League football, so any potential lack of involvement in Europe’s elite competition could be detrimental to Liverpool’s plans.

That said, Real Madrid’s first-team offerings may not be enough to Brandt, as the young midfielder has made four senior appearances for Germany’s national squad and will be keen to keep his spot in the side ahead of the World Cup next summer.

With both Bayer and Liverpool both facing a battle to seal a top-four finish in their relevant leagues, and Real Madrid perhaps not having enough football to offer Brandt, the youngster has a huge decision to make this summer.

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Chelsea continued their march towards the Premier League title with a fine win over spirited and determined Swansea City side at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

Goals from Cesc Fabregas, Pedro and Diego Costa sealed a 3-1 victory that means the Blues are now a massive eleven points clear of second place. It’s looking increasingly likely that Antonio Conte’s side will have the honours wrapped up sooner rather than later.

Swansea will feel they may have got something from the game having equalised at 1-1 after a Fernando Llorente header found its way past Courtois.

That hope eventually faded with the Blues eventually showing their class to pick up the win.

These are the FIVE things we learned from Saturday afternoon’s action…

Cesc Fabregas is as good as ever

Fabregas was one of the team’s top performers, showing again why he is still very much a key member of Antonio Conte’s squad. He got on the scoresheet and could have had another after pinging a powerful shot off the woodwork in the second half. In fact that was his only chance, he was a constant goal threat in the final third from midfield, giving the Blues an extra dimension in possession.

On his 300th Premier League appearance he showed he’s still as good as ever.

Pedro is having a much better season

Having now scored 11 goals and contributed another 6 assists for Chelsea this season, it’s clear that winger Pedro is having his best season at Stamford Bridge. He’s already way past his milestone of 7 goals for the season last year having moved from Barcelona.

He was in lethal form against the Swans scoring one and setting up Costa’s too.

The Spaniard now has 7 goals in his last 9 appearances for the club and there seems to be no stopping him when he gets in the mood.

Antonio Conte has worked wonders with him, another sign the manager is destined for greatness at the club.

Costa cannot be stopped

Having gone his previous three Premier League appearances without scoring, Diego Costa will have been delighted to contribute with a goal, something he doesn’t appear to be able to stop doing.

That effort was his 17th of the season, highlighting just how effective he has been this season for the Blues.

He’s perhaps been the key influencer in their Premier League title bid and if he keeps banging in the goals then the trophy will surely by lifted by Chelsea in May.

Chelsea should sign Llorente

With 9 goals already this season, someone like Fernando Llorente would add serious depth to Chelsea’s squad in the summer. They only really have Diego Costa to call upon in the strike areas with Michy Batshuayi yet to prove he has what it takes to succeed at Stamford Bridge.

His header past Courtois was his 9th goal of the season, all set to break into double figures for the first time in his career since the 2013/14 season which was actually played under Antonio Conte at Juventus.

Should Chelsea move for him in the summer and spark that productive relationship with the Italian manager once again?

Conte is on his way to becoming a great

No manager has quite had the impact Antonio Conte has had in his debut Premier League season. His team just can’t stop winning and they appear to be getting better and more solid by the week.

With Champions League football next season a certainty, he’s all set to become a Chelsea legend by competing on that front too. Who’s to say he can’t take on Europe’s best if he keeps dominating English football the way he has been.

Aitor Karanka’s departure from Middlesbrough has given Sunderland fans a reminder that they still have their manager in place, despite a torrid campaign.

David Moyes took over the Black Cats in the summer, but has struggled to impose a positive impact on the club.

From the start of the campaign, the North-East outfit have been in and around the lower echelons of the Premier League table.

The team have won just five of their 27 top-flight fixtures, picking up 19 points so far, and they seem destined for the Championship given that they are six points clear of safety.

Today, Middlesbrough announced via their official website that Karanka will leave his job with immediate effect.

Boro are second from bottom and three points above Sunderland, which has left some fans wondering why the axe has not yet fallen on Moyes.

Five of the clubs in the bottom six have had managerial changes this season, with Leicester City, Swansea City, Crystal Palace, Hull City and now Middlesbrough taking action.

Sunderland are the only club not to do so, and now some fans want Karanka to replace Moyes.

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Mikel Arteta is a player like so many others who split opinion. Either a sign of a declining, settling for fourth Arsenal or a suave, professional, deep-lying midfielder.

From a rare piece of Iberian flair at David Moyes’ Everton to club captain, calm-head and consistent presence at Arsenal, Arteta’s career in the Premier League was a varied one. Signed by Arsenal on deadline day in 2011, the Spaniard quickly ascended up the club’s hierarchy as he was given the honour of becoming vice-captain for the next season after the departure of Robin van Persie. A sign of Arsenal’s shortage of natural leaders, perhaps.

The loss of Alex Song to Barcelona in the same window led to Arteta playing the deepest midfielder role. He adapted well initially, having primarily been an offensive or wide player when at Everton and Rangers. It was a transition that was becoming increasingly common; taking a technically gifted attacking player and converting them into a position-aware controller of tempo.

Arteta remained a constant in an Arsenal squad that was in a consistent state of minor turmoil. A repetition of last-16 Champions League eliminations and poor runs of Premier League form left a club hitting its targets, but only just. The ex-Real Sociedad midfielder was influential, not only through his importance tactically, but in his role as a leader off the field. It was, of course, Arteta who lifted Arsenal’s first trophy in far too many years with the FA Cup in 2014.

Although the Spaniard’s career waned with injuries stifling any hopes of playing deep into his thirties, Arteta was an iconic figure through a time of reinvention and disappointment at Arsenal. Often the glue that held weak, young squads together, he will go down as one of the most reliable players in the history of the club.

His choice to retire at the end of his last Arsenal contract in 2016 and move straight to Manchester City to work with Pep Guardiola as a coach reflects the ambition of the man. If any player has the credentials and personality to develop into a world-beating coach, it is the cool, thoughtful Spaniard.

A younger, fully-fit Arteta could have been key for Arsenal this season, which makes his decision to not only retire, but leave the club, all the more frustrating. With the long-term absence of Santi Cazorla, Granit Xhaka continuing to find himself out of position in transition and Francis Coquelin too often rash, the guidance of Arteta either as a team-mate or a coach would surely have been a great benefit to Arsenal.

Good players of do not translate to good coaches, but Arteta could have remained in a mentoring role at the very least. As a partner for Xhaka, there are a few that would have been much better. He could have fulfilled the Cazorla role perfectly up until a mere couple of years ago and it would have left Arsenal’s midfield and 2016/17 season looking resoundingly healthier.

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Despite a convincing victory over Everton at Anfield, Liverpool fans were left massively annoyed by the performances of two Toffees players; Ross Barkley and Ashley Williams.

Both were involved in incidents throughout the 90 minutes with Barkley in particular attracting the ire of the Reds support after a late challenge on Dejan Lovren that could have done serious damage to his ankle.

Williams was perceived by some supporters to have stamped on Emre Can in the first half.

Derbies are rarely without controversy or the odd naughty challenge but supporters felt Everton beyond even the context of a derby with their combative and physical style.

Overall it was a joyous day for Liverpool after Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi banged in goals to boost their chances of a top four finish in the Premier League this season.

Everton had been looking to spring a surprise result to potentially push for a top four position themselves but those hopes have now been dashed.

Was the referee too lenient on the Toffees or is this all a fuss over nothing? Liverpool fans took to Twitter to share their displeasure with the antics of Barkley and Williams…

Earlier this week, it was reported that Arsenal had offered Alexis Sanchez a £300,000-a-week contract in a bid to convince the Chilean to pen a fresh deal at the Emirates Stadium.

As it stands, the former Barcelona attacker will be out of contract in the summer of 2018, and it is understood that a number of clubs, including Chelsea, want to sign him at the end of the season.

Arsenal’s rotten 2017 has seen them fall away in the Premier League, in addition to suffering more embarrassment against Bayern Munich in the knockout round of the Champions League.

During a press conference on Friday, Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was asked whether the club had indeed decided to smash their wage structure in a bid to keep Sanchez at the club.

The Frenchman remained coy when questioned on the reported contract offer, however, and conceded that he ‘could not confirm’ that an offer had been made at this stage of the season.

He said:

“First of all, I cannot confirm that we have offered that. Secondly, we will do as always. We have to consider our financial potential to sustain the wages of our whole squad.”

Sanchez has scored 22 times in 40 appearances for Arsenal during the 2016-17 campaign, but the club’s inability to challenge for major trophies has seemingly led to his unhappiness.

Any Newcastle United fan will tell you the recent blip in form is typical of the Toon Army. While the magnitude of throwing away their lead at the top of the Championship pales in comparison to the 12-point one they held over Manchester United in the Premier League back in 1995/96, the memories are bound to linger over St. James’ Park.

With Brighton having secured promotion to the proverbial Promised Land yesterday, Chris Hughton’s Seagulls side are all but certain to win the league, too. Obviously, the Magpies still have a chance of lifting the trophy, though the seven-point gap those on the south coast hold would take some overcoming between now and the end of the campaign.

Still, there will be no emotional meltdown from Rafa Benitez. Outsiders will point to the fact Newcastle not only boast a Champions League winning manager – one who was appointed Real Madrid boss as recently as 2015 – and a hugely expensive team as reasons why they should have walked the league title. Perhaps that’s true, though it doesn’t quite tell the whole story behind between Benitez’s revolution in black and white.

Newcastle have been a mess for years. As an ardent follower of the Toon Army, the main sources of excitement to have radiated out of Tyneside in recent years have come from the final day of the 2014/15 campaign when John Carver just managed to retain Premier League status, as well as the arrival of Benitez in March 2016.

It’s been that bad.

After stagnating under Alan Pardew ever since the fifth-placed finish at the end of 2011/12 season, rot began to set in. Poor recruitment and a distant owner, the Magpies failed to capitalise on the momentum of that campaign as Newcastle’s most exciting team in years was pulled apart by bad management and player sales.

While Steve McClaren was barely the most popular choice to take charge of the club in the summer of 2015, there was little the former England manager could do. A limited coach, perhaps, but even a manager with a CV as impressive as Benitez’s is showing just how deeply set the problems at the club are.

The manner in which Newcastle bounced back from the relegation of 2008/09, as well as the way in which they may do this time around lends itself to the adage that going down is the best thing for a club in those situations. Certainly, there is something to be said for that, though the impact of relegation shouldn’t be understated. It’s terrible.

In many ways, skipper Jamaal Lascelles sums up this current incarnation of a black and white side. A hugely popular figure amongst the support, a captain finally prepared to take responsibility of his team, though a player who can still see his solid runs of form outdone by nerves and silly mistakes.

Nerves have proved a sewing motif throughout this season. The pressure the players feel when playing at St. James’ Park when things aren’t going their way has been well documented, though Steven Taylor’s comments prior to the loss at Ipswich suggest that sort of anxiety has now crept into Newcastle’s away games this season. At the worst time in which to do so.  

“I’ve spoken to a couple of their players, I’m not going to mention who, but they’re a bit nervous because they’ve seen that we’ve picked up a few draws against big sides, and are making a good go of it.”

When reading that before the game, that looks like a standard pre-match comment from an opposition player. Still, after, it would at least suggest Newcastle’s players are feeling the pressure – even away from home.

Instilling confidence in a club that has been on its knees, one who sold their best players during the summer after a ridiculously meek relegation is a mammoth task. While many supporters will claim the exits of the universally unpopular Moussa Sissoko, the inconsistent Georginio Wijnaldum and the hot-headed Daryl Janmaat are much to cry about, there’s little doubt these are good players and wholesale changes take time to set in.

So, Benitez isn’t just changing a squad of players. He’s changing a club to have lost a great connection with the city it stands so proudly in the middle of, a losing mentality to have engulfed the various players to have donned the famous strip in recent years and a feeling of inherent distrust amongst sections of support to owner Mike Ashley.

This is a process. A long one. Other than the passionate support of their long-suffering fans, Newcastle have been a loveless club for years. It’s taken the arrival of Benitez to change that, though the damage to have been done requires yet more TLC. Having been neglected for so long, that sort of attention is almost an alien concept to many of the players to have stagnated with the club, one that needs some getting used to.

From the outside looking in, just how hard the Toon Army have made it this season looks like a failure. However, other than the period in which Kevin Keegan’s pulsating side of the mid-1990s captured the hearts of a nation, Newcastle have never been a club those from the outside understand.

Promotion is paramount this season. Lamenting the fact a team as expensively assembeled as this one, in the Championship, are hoping Huddersfield Town and Reading go through a blip in order to keep them at arm’s length will do little to help now. 

Newcastle won’t win the league, though still have their desinty in their hands. That’s easy to forget. The ‘Rafalution’ is still coming people, just in typical Newcastle United fashion.

Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of winning the Premier League title look to be over after their nine-match winning run came to an end when they were beaten 1-0 by West Ham United at the London Stadium on Friday night, and fans were quick to turn on right-back Kyle Walker.

Despite Kieran Trippier starting in the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea and the 2-0 success against Arsenal in the final ever north London derby at White Hart Lane last weekend, Walker was given the nod on the right against the Irons.

The England international has been linked with a move away from the club in recent weeks and his below-par performance won’t have done anything to dismiss those rumours – he was substituted for Trippier in the second half.

Tottenham supporters were quick to have their say on his showing via social media, and some even said they don’t want to see him in a Spurs shirt again.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

According to reports in Portuguese media outlet A Bola, via Sport Witness, Newcastle United are ready to rival Everton and Southampton in the race to sign Sporting Lisbon centre-back Ruben Semedo this summer.

What’s the word, then?

Well, Rafa Benitez is keen to significantly strengthen his Magpies squad this summer following their immediate return to the Premier League, and he looks set to be handed a transfer war chest by owner Mike Ashley after committing his future to the club.

One of the areas he is looking to bolster is at the heart of the defence, and reports in Portugal have suggested that he has sounded out Semedo with a view to moving to St James’ Park.

However, the supposed €45m (approximately £38m) release clause in his contract would throw the rumour into some doubt even though they could probably get him for less than that amount.

How good has Semedo been this season?

The 23-year-old has made 22 Primeira Liga appearances this term, and despite picking up two red cards earlier in the campaign he has still impressed.

A big presence in the air – he has won 55 aerial duels – the defender has made 66 clearances and 57 interceptions while he has also shown he is good on the ball with a passing accuracy of 90%.

However, he has been dropped from the starting line-up by manager Jorge Jesus in seven of their last 11 league matches to show that he still has some improving to do.

Would he be a good signing for Newcastle?

It’s difficult to say.

While he is highly-rated it would be something of a risk for Benitez to rely on him coming in and making an instant impact in the Premier League.

The Spaniard has also said that he is looking for players with knowledge of the English top flight, which certainly makes the rumour linking him with Semedo a bit of a mystery, considering he would be a similar addition to Chancel Mbemba in terms of age and experience.

That said, he does have all of the attributes to be a brilliant centre-back and it could be a risk worth taking.

What’s the verdict, then?

Well, with Benitez looking to sign players with Premier League experience and Sporting likely to demand a high fee for the 23-year-old, a deal for Semedo doesn’t really look like a possibility.

Southampton and Everton are likely show more of an interest in him, and if they did Newcastle would find it difficult to sign him anyway.