Hughton today tells us Michael Owen will be our saviour, and that the relegation crisis isn't REALLY that bad, when we could find ourselves in a relegation place before we kick off against Arsenal on Saturday.
But the fact remains, Mike Ashley wants his mottley crew of ex-Spurs cast-offs for the next THREE years!
But at long last ... the penny has dropped ... and Hughton has suddenly realised Martins and Owen are half the size of the defenders who are marking them ... so the long-ball is NOT the answer.
Hooray!
50,000 Geordies could have told him that when he first took over the job when Kevin Keegan legged it.
Chris Hughton: "Michael's starting condition will be better against Arsenal than it was against Hull.
"He'll have another week of training under his belt, and he'll also have 70 minutes of match time to fall back on.
"He's been out for a while, and of course he looked a little bit rusty. But you just never know what Michael could do because he's always capable of scoring a goal.
"We're aware of his qualities and it's great to have him back. He's had a great goalscoring record throughout his career, and it's great to have him available.
"So we know we have to get good service in to them.
"It took us too long to get a grip on the game against Hull, so we were never really able to do that.
"We didn't get good enough service to Oba or Michael, and we know we're going to have to improve on that and play very well to get a positive result against Arsenal."