Newcastle United not only won 4-0 at St James’ Park against Tottenham in Saturday’s early kickoff, but Bruno Guimaraes fulfilled a four-month-old promise.
Bruno Guimaraes has been booked in four consecutive games, bringing his season total to nine yellow cards. One more, and he’d be suspended for two games.
Bruno’s last booking came on January 13th, in a 3-2 loss to Manchester City, after which he made a promise to Eddie Howe that no one expected him to keep.
Saturday’s game against Tottenham was the final one in which a booking would result in Bruno serving a two-game suspension before the slate was cleared.
Bruno could have fallen at the very last hurdle today
Despite getting into a spat with Giovani Lo Celso as he was leaving the pitch in second-half stoppage time, Bruno Guimaraes avoided being booked for the 11th Premier League game in a row.
Eddie Howe told TNT Sport after the game that he had sat Bruno down after he received his tenth yellow card and ordered him to keep his nose clean after Bruno agreed not to get booked again.
“What a fantastic thing. So we held a meeting about it. He was on nine, with plenty of games to go. I told Bruno, ‘Look, we need you to keep away from the suspension’.
“He said, ‘Gaffer, I promise I will not be booked,’ and I looked at him and said, ‘No.'” And he made that vow, which is a difficult thing to accomplish because in a game, things may happen without thinking about it, and he was able to navigate through that moment. He did it for the group because he understands his role.”
Newcastle’s form is better than those around them
Given how much of Newcastle’s play passes through Bruno and how competitive he is, it’s incredible to watch him go through so many games without receiving another caution.
Now we’ll see if he can keep it up now that he’s off the leash, because it hasn’t changed the way he plays at all.
Newcastle now has a significant gap to recover before their next game against Crystal Palace, which should allow a few players to improve on their fitness and return to the squad to continue their incredible run of form as other teams around them struggle. Could we even steal fifth place? Okay, I will calm down.
