WordPress get_posts problem; adding category argument seemingly nullifies numberposts

I have two different get_posts functions as follows:

<!-- Begin Left Middle -->
    <div id="leftmiddle">
        <h1><a href="/category/recent-cases">Recent Cases</a></h1>
        <?php
            global $post;
            $postslist = get_posts('category=5&numberposts=2');
            foreach ($postslist as $post) : 
                setup_postdata($post);
        ?> 
            <div id="latest_post">
                <span class="theme date"><?php the_date(); ?></span>
                <br />
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>  
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
            </div>
        <?php endforeach; ?>       
    </div>
<!-- End Left Middle -->

<!-- Begin Right Middle -->
    <div id="rightmiddle">
        <h1><a href="/blog">Latest Posts</a></h1>
        <?php
            $postslist = get_posts('numberposts=2&order=DESC&orderby=date&category=-5');
            foreach ($postslist as $post) : 
                setup_postdata($post);
        ?> 
            <div id="latest_post">
                <span class="theme date"><?php the_date(); ?></span>
                <br />
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>  
                <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
            </div>
    开发者_高级运维    <?php endforeach; ?>

    </div>
<!-- End Right Middle -->

Now in rightmiddle it does everything as expected; lists only the two most recent posts that aren't in category 5. However, in leftmiddle it lists all the posts in category 5. If I remove the category argument in leftmiddle or I change it to a negating param like in rightmiddle, numberposts works as expected. Why is that?

Try using a two different variable names to hold the return values from your calls to get_posts(). Right now you are using the same variable name $postslist. They might be interfering, which is why the last call in rightmiddle works.

You are also declaring global $post in leftmiddle but not rightmiddle.