Alan Pardew's Newcastle career remains in the balance, though his Newcastle team fought from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.
Swansea kicked the game off, with the visitors still looking for their first win of the season. The focus wasn't all on Newcastle, but on Jonjo Shelvey, who was yesterday recalled to the England squad by Roy Hodgson. The game didn;t get off to the best of starts, with neither side creating an opportunity in the opening 10 minutes. It took a while for either side to gain the upper hand, and it was the Swans who began to take full control.
Swansea saw a lot more of the ball in the next five minutes, but it was Newcastle who created the first chance of the game. Gabriel Obertan, who was looking to double his Premier League goal tally for Newcastle, caught Gylfi Sigurdsson out in possession, but dragged his shot wide.
Pardew's men were made to rue that miss just 30 seconds later. From the goal-kick, the ball fell to Sigurdsson, who played a beautiful one-two with Wilfried Bony, with the Ivorian striker slotting home from just inside the area. After that goal, the majority of the Newcastle players seemed deflated, and some didn't look interested whatsoever.
At one stage in the first half, both sets of fans rose from their seats in a minute of applause for Jonas Gutierrez, who was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. A fitting tribute from the home side that brought the fans of both clubs together as one.
The home side were splitting the Toon defence apart at ease, and several more chances were spurned. Sigurdsson had a couple of chances to add to his assist with a goal for himself, but the Icelandic midfielder, in his second spell at the club, couldn't bring the ball under control. Bony could have also doubled his tally for the game, but his shot was expertly saved by Tim Krul.
Newcastle had created that single chance as the game closed in on half-time, but as Obertan managed to wriggle his way past Neil Taylor, putting a ball into the box for Papiss Cisse, who scored his third goal of the season, and sent Newcastle level going into the break.
Half-time: Swansea 1-1 Newcastle
The second half began just as the first ended: Swansea were dominating possession again. It took just five minutes for the home side to restore their lead. Sigurdsson caught another Newcastle player in possession, this time it was Sissoko, who then delivered an inch-perfect through-ball to Wayne Routledge, who put the home side 2-1 up. Sissoko made a claim for a foul on him in the build-up, though replays showed that he Frenchman was just not strong enough.
The action dried up until the 70th minute, when Sammy Ameobi played a dangerous costless-kick into the Swansea box, with Wilfried Bony on hand to clear the ball out of his own box. Bony then had a chance to score, but Tim Krul was on hand again to make another fabulous save.
Swansea kept missing chances, and, just like they were in the first half, had to pay for all of those missed opportunities. Sammy Ameobi was in the thick of the action, beating two defenders, before bring the ball on his stronger left footb. He executed a perfect cross for Papiss Cisse to tap home his second goal of the game. Newcastle could've ended the game with all three points, with Daryl Janmaat's 25-yard shot well saved by Lukasz Fabianski.
| Swansea (2) | Newcastle (2) | ||
 |  |  |  |
| Fabianski | 6 | Krul | 6 |
| Richards | 6 | Janmaat | 6 |
| Williams | 5 | Coloccini | 5 |
| Fernandez | 6 | Williamson | 5 |
| Taylor | 5 | Dummett | 6 |
| Ki | 6 | Colback | 6 |
| Shelvey | 7 | Tiote | 7 |
| Sigurdsson | 8 | Sissoko | 5 |
| Dyer | 7 | Obertan | 6 |
| Routledge | 7 | Gouffran | 4 |
| Bony | 7 | Cisse | 9 |
| Substitutes | |||
| Montero | - | Ameobi | 6 |
| Emnes | - | Ayoze | - |
| Riviere | - | ||