For Newcastle, absence makes the heart grow angrier, not fonder. With Alexander Isak in the team, they would have won here at Aston Villa.
Eddie Howe, remarkably on the back of such a disorderly summer, had everything primed for an opening-day heist. The problem was, the getaway driver was at home on Tyneside - or Spain, or Sweden, or wherever he chooses to be this weekend.
The one place he did not want to be was with his team-mates, and his manager, and the staff who have made him one of the world’s best strikers.