Seven Truths: Same old Newcastle, indulged Theo Walcott and angry Charlie Adam

Newcastle are one of the highest spending teams in the league this transfer window, and have plenty of new players: Georginio Wijnaldum, Chancel Mbemba, Florian Thauvin and Aleksandar Mitrovic are all expected to regularly feature in the first 11. They will have to do without Mitrovic for a while though, as he was sent off for a stamp on Francis Coquelin.

Mitrovic has already had some comedy bookings, and was known for being a hothead when he arrived from Anderlecht. Instead of curbing his enthusiasm, Steve McClaren has allowed a player with a negative situation establish the same one in his new country. It’s the same as ever for Newcastle. However hard they try, they are their own worst enemies.

Just as Newcastle do themselves no favours, so Arsenal manage to pull off the same old mistakes. With days left in the transfer window, Arsene Wenger was coy when asked about the possibility of attacking reinforcements. He needs them.

Walcott continues to be indulged as if he was 18. He should now be a senior member of the squad, and while he has admittedly returned from a serious injury, that’s not his problem. His desire to play as a striker while continually demonstrating his unsuitability to the role - five successful passes and a woeful close-range miss in the first half - is more of a delusion. Olivier Giroud was no better. Wenger should have acted several weeks ago, as it appears any serious replacement is beyond him.

Another red card, another stamp, and another human whose livelihood he has put at risk. Dorian Gray committed all sorts of transgressions, and the ugliness of that was put onto a portrait of him as he remained beautiful. Charlie Adam evidently has no painting to do the same for him.

Bakary Sako scored for Crystal Palace last week, and did so again against Chelsea, also setting up the winner. He has spent time with Wolves in League One and Championship, and has made an excellent start to his Premier League career aged 27. While many clubs are showing ambition with high spending for players currently on the continent, Alan Pardew (or perhaps his scouts) have identified that there is talent in the lower divisions if you look for it. Alex McCarthy, brought in from Queens Park Rangers this summer, demonstrates the same.

Danny Higginbotham’s Independent column today pointed out that home advantage no longer seems to be so useful for sides in the Premier League. The reason, he said, was that away sides are able to sit back and defend for half an hour, and as the home side becomes frustrated, they can launch their own efforts with counter-attacks.

This is, so far, true, though it should be said that there’s a relatively small sample size to be going on at the moment, and the advantage could start to be found when the better sides in the league (the top five except City, who are managing fine wherever they play) finish their transfer market activity and become more dangerous against massed defences.

So far this weekend, though, it has been no different, with Chelsea, Newcastle, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Stoke and Villa all failing to win. In truth, there are some obvious explanations there, like Stoke falling to nine men, Chelsea continuing their implosion, and Newcastle not being very good anyway, but this could be the next tactical solution for managers to examine.

West Ham have now had six red cards in 10 games. The total of both cards and games has been swelled by their early participation in the Europa League, and it was in that competition that their manager, Slaven Bilic, was also sent off. Mark Noble’s red card against Liverpool was harsh, certainly, but it remains that West Ham have a problem with discipline. Having released Kevin Nolan from the club earlier this week, West Ham need a club captain who can instill some leadership and organisation. Bilic needs to find one to build on the impressive display against Liverpool.

Monaco essentially went bust, their owner deciding to scrap his lofty aims for the club and ship out their most famous and expensive names. Just this summer, they lost Layvin Kurzawa to their rivals to the title, PSG, and will likely lose more players after failing to qualify for the Champions League. Manchester United scraped into fourth and their most expensive signing ever, Angel Di Maria, seemingly couldn’t be bothered to try for the side. Still, they are reeling, failing to sign Pedro in the simplest of circumstances. And now Chelsea have lost again, they are enduring a civil war of sorts and the manager can’t get his defensive transfer target. Is it these sides’ fault? No - it is that they have all bought bad luck charm Radamel Falcao.