Newcastle need seven points from the next five games.

Posted on November 3rd, 2010 | 76 Comments |

Emirates next for Newcastle.
Emirates next for Newcastle.
Actually, I would prefer Newcastle to be walking away from the next five games with fifteen points in the bag, but being realistic it just isn’t going to happen.

So how do you think we will do?

Next up for United is a trip to The Emirates on Sunday, and whilst I harbour some slim hopes of us being able to take something from the game, there is a very real prospect that we could end up losing, like most teams do when they visit Arsenal.

I’ve got the match down as a loss on my little season planner of where I think we can pick up points from, but as many of you know, my predictions, so it seems, are not the best.

Following on from Arsenal we have two games at home. First up is Blackburn next Wednesday evening, a team who appear hold a voodoo card over us and always seem to be able to get results against us.

Sam Allardyce will be itching to get one over us and prove to the world what a fantastic manager he is. He tells anyone who will listen to how great he is often enough, and a win on his old stomping ground, playing his “brand” of football will no doubt pull the auto-inflate cord on his ego again. I have us down for three points for that match, but it won’t be easy.

Then Fulham come to St James’ Park, in another game that won’t be easy. I also have this down as three points for Newcastle, but Fulham, as I write this, appear to be on a decent run as Mark Hughes looks to be building on the hard work that his predecessor, Roy Hodgson, put in before him.

After two home games, and hopefully six points, Newcastle are back on the road again with a visit to The Reebok Stadium to take on Bolton Wanderers. Owen Coyle has his team playing some decent stuff but has ensured that his team remain hard to beat. I would like us to get a point from this one as it is highly likely that Bolton will be one of the teams in that lower part of the table, the part where I think we will be.

November draws to a close with a home match against Chelsea, who are arguably the most impressive team in the Premier League at the minute. They win games at a canter and can get stuck in when they need to and dig deep to get a result. I have this one down as loss on my little planner, but with us being at home I would hope for a different outcome.

If my predictions could be fulfilled then we will find ourselves on 21 points having played only 15 games, which is fantastic going given what our minimum aim for the season is.

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

Related Posts:

Posted on by toonsy in category: General miscellany and NUFC 'Blog and Thoughts and reflections and Toonsy , with tags: , , , , ,
Comment on this post

76 Responses

  3. You’d expect us to win both home games, but I bet we don’t.

    By the same token I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we managed to pick up the odd unexpected point at either Chelsea or Arsenal.

    IMO, anything less than 5 points will be very disappointing (but not disastrous). 7 is par for the course I’d say and anything over and above would be a right royal brucey bonus!!! :)

  4. Sorry – we have 3 home games. I meant the 2 against Blackburn and Fulham as the “winnable” ones.

  5. I would expect us to beat Fulham as they will play a bit. Blackburn will sit back and we might struggle to break them down as we have at home this season. I actually think we could well beat Bolton as again they will attack us at their place and we’re pretty good on the counter.

  6. Stuart makes a good point, but is anyone surprised at how good we are on the counter given our relative lack of pace?

    I know I am….

  8. toonsy,
    At the start of the season I would have been happy with 21 point at Xmas, so if we can achieve this points total by the end of this month I think we will be well on the way to survival.

    By the way m8 hope everything goes well for you at hospital (can’t do a smiley)

  11. It has been rare for games to pan out as we expected them to this season. It would be typical of our season to squeak a result at the emirates then get beaten by Blackburn on Wednesday. I do feel like we can give anybody a game though!

  12. Na, not surprised.
    It’s more due to our ‘lack of pace’ that we can’t break teams down.
    Cos when it’s congested we haven’t got someone super quick that can whizz pass the last defender & get the cross in.
    If players are taking up good positions, when we counter that’s more important than raw pace.
    ;)

  13. toonsy – counter attacking has as much to do with your speed of passing as it does the pace of your players (as illustrated rather cheesily in the first Goal film where the coach shows whatshisface that the ball is always faster than the man).

    It’s something that CH and his team have obviously spent a lot of time on over the last 9 months and its paying dividends now! :)

  17. 7 would be a great number over these 5 games. A point at arsenal would start us off flying though, and then who knows. Our passing has been so much better than in recent history, I think that’s the reason for our newfound ability to counter, and their work rate. Tiote, Jonas, Jose, and Andy seem tireless.

  18. TGS,
    mate, just do what you did, but without a space between the semi-colon & the close parenthesis.
    ;)

  22. Keep all the big lads on the pitch v a very short assed arsenal team.
    & attack, no standing about waiting for them to take over.
    They don’t like it up ’em.

  23. yes lads u make good points about are lack of pace…put this 2 u..how about becasue..jonas amobia nolan and carrol are 2 footed and dont have to check back on thier better foot..their for players who do lose that chance to score when in good postions and by doing that lose that chance..being 2 footed allows us 2 go both ways..

  26. Asim – Carroll is far from two-footed mate. He is left-only I’m afraid. His right leg is for standing only.

    A complete opposite of when I used to be a player in fairness :)

  27. TGS,
    that’s it mate, get in.
    ;)

    Brownrob,
    what’s with the km thing, we deal in miles mate?
    Still funny though mate.
    :)

  28. Lol thanks Tony, I was almost wetting myself making it as its going to be emailed round to Mackems :)

    You can all help with that hehehe

  29. toonsy – bit harsh mate.

    I’ve also seen him use his right leg kick lumps out of centre half’s. :lol:

  30. Aye Clint, the only signpost I could get in Google big enough was one in ireland so it had to do, Im too lazy to go back and fix it lol

    Glad u all like it though :)

  34. Cheers Ice, I hope so too mate.

    The next article is ready by the way and is scheduled for mid-day in case I’m not back.

  35. toonsy he may play a lot with his left foot..but he can play and use his right foot…if he wonted 2..

  37. Arsenal are saving Cesc for our game on Sunday and resting him today, which means the odds will be firmly stacked against us. He makes their team come alive and we won’t benefit from the same fortune West Brom did when he was out injured.

  38. If CH remains positive and sticks with 4-4-2 then the world is our lobster or crayfish or whatever ?

    As another Andy has poointed out in True Faith today

    http://www.true-faith.co.uk/tf/letters.nsf/LookupUNID/D0530FE94C5D666C802577CF00756095?OpenDocument

    “Sundays result was a victory for 4-4-2. In the ever increasingly defensive SKY League having the boldness from Hughton to play 2 up front should be applauded. If you look at Sundays other games every other team bar ourselves played 4-5-1 (Mackems, Birmingham, Villa, Bolton, Liverpool) with the result being dire performances from negative teams trying not to lose. It clicked to me on Sunday what the argument about money ruining the game meant. For the majority of teams in the league just staying up is their only ambition. Stay in the league and keep the TV money coming in. As the table stands teams that are looking to play a more expansive game are in the top half of the table. Apart from the obvious teams (Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal), teams such as ourselves (at times), Spurs, Blackpool (despite getting walloped of the top teams) are enjoying the fruits of actually having a go at the opposition rather than shutting up shop”

    West Brom went to the Emirates with a 4-4-1-1 cunningly disguised as a mobile 4-4-2 with Morrison (and later Dorrans) supporting Odemwingie and came away with all three points. I see no reason to change this formation either home or away right now, as I’ve often said we must play to our strengths and not populate a team with players who can only perform “on their day”

  40. Not to tempt fate but I reckon a JB red card might be a good bet on Sunday.

    There’s obviously quite a bit of bad blood between him and the Arse and the last time he faced them he looked like a man possessed – and that was only for 5 mins.

  41. TGS kna mate ive had to stop,one has knocked my hernia back oot that ive just had done,so ime back in on 29th to get one side re-done,knacked my trip to malta like :(

  42. Toonsy i had a similar feeling as you yesterday about ben arfa having played his last game for newcastle. but reading some reports today those feelings have now gone. i believe he will be a NUFC players for atleast couple more years.

  44. Andy

    West Brom would have had their a**e handed to them if Arsenal’s captain was on the pitch.

  46. good points lads..also believe that tiote has made us a better team..due to the fact..we had to bridge the gap..from central to forward..and tiote allows nolan and the rest to go forward..with smith or how ever being their made us sit..becasue they were then getting over run when they lost the ball..they couldnt get back..said from the start of the season if we got enough of the ball to carrol we would score for fun..no defence will cope with us full stop..teams playing us will be thinking how to stop carrol..which allows us more room to move..what a change a year makes..

  47. I think 5 point, from the 3 games we are in with a chance of a result, is more likely – Arsenal and Chelsea are “write-offs” for me.
    Anyway, if we beat any team it’s only because they’ve played badly, remember. We’ve won 4 PL games and each time the manager and commentators have gone on about how bad the other team were (Villa, West Ham, Everton, Slumberland) – so clearly to win any more games means we have to be “lucky” and play a team that happens to be awful against us.

  48. icedog says:
    November 3, 2010 at 11:08 am
    TGS kna mate ive had to stop,one has knocked my hernia back oot that ive just had done,so ime back in on 29th to get one side re-done,knacked my trip to malta like<<<< you want too stop bending down pickin then nippins oot of the gutter :)

  49. TGS cheers m8,cannot really re-book, flat has been payed for xmas/new year time,but happy out come ive gave it to a woman whos young kid has had a bad time in hosp,it will pick them up they only have to pay transfer fee on flights so ime happy,i can go anytime and stay with mates for nowt its just i was takeing mrs this time,so she missis oot

  51. Allardyce – 6 million for Smith
    Hughton – 3.5 million for Tiote

    HUGHTON OOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

  54. BATTY all that bending is your fault m8,ime looking for cheap fags to save me bending,but you didnt come up with any,ime still looking for some

  55. Toonsy…ya’ll be fine at hospital mate, good things come in 3’s…beating the mackems, meeting ya “special friend and good news from the hospital ;-)
    good luck mate

  56. “El Toro says:

    Andy – West Brom would have had their a**e handed to them if Arsenal’s captain was on the pitch.”

    Point taken but they laboured against WHU on Saturday with Captain Fab playing. I dont think defending for 89 minutes is gonna achieve much so we may as well go out and get a goal or two while getting hammered :)

  57. like i said earlier in the week, i don’t like to concede games, and i like to go after every match, and while i think we can get a result at arse, it is more likely that we won’t. The blackburn match however is one we should win, but if the squad is too fatigued after the arse game, or still carrying knocks, then we could drop points to blackburn. I’d rather come away from those 2 games with 3 points rather than 1 or 2. It’s hard to play your best off 2 days rest. So like i said, i don’t like to concede matches but just tryin to be sensible. Think we should save jonas, andy and joey for blackburn.

  58. Its actually surprising how much money Ashley let Allardyce waste, He spend nigh on £30m on Rozenhal, Smith, Faye, Barton, Beye and Jose on big wages, Brought in Cacapa, Geremi and Viduka on freebies on £50k+ a week, 30 odd members of coaching and medical staff, the majority were employed by Bolton so they paid compo and their wages.

    Fat Sams prob spent more money in his 6 months here than he will in his whole career with Bolton, Blackburn and Real Madrid…

  60. What I really like about this club is that it is playing “smash mouth” football. Take the ball to the net, no dilly=dallying around looking for that last little pretty pass. This will not impress Fabio C, but it does impress the opponents, and there is little they can do to stop the assaults unless they can play keep away for 90 minutes. t It is a mystery to me how many points NUFC will get in November, but I feel they will compete in every game and there will be no heads down after a loss.

  61. magpie6699

    “Anyway, if we beat any team it’s only because they’ve played badly, remember. We’ve won 4 PL games and each time the manager and commentators have gone on about how bad the other team were (Villa, West Ham, Everton, Slumberland) – so clearly to win any more games means we have to be “lucky” and play a team that happens to be awful against us.”

    I’m happy with that, mate. Plaudits are worthless and just bring pressure. I will be happy for us to be branded the club that were “lucky” to stay up because “other teams were so poor”. All that matters is we stay up.

  62. Andy

    Point taken and I agree our best chance of a result against arsenal is commit a lot of bodies to our counter attack. The way to beat Arsenal is too outscore them. I know it is much harder than it sounds, but we have 3 or so players in rich scoring form and their defence is one we can definitely get at. I can’t imagine Koscielny, Djourou or even Squillaci keeping us quiet for 90mins.

    If we are clinical we can get something, but I don’t see it happening.

  63. I would like us to play this team-
    Krul
    Simo Willo Colo Jose
    Smith Tiote
    Joey Captain Cool Spidey
    Avatar

    The thing with this formation is that it will enable us to close down arse with their passing and help us defend better.and with our proficiency on the counter attack thats already been mentioned above,who knows.its not fair on shola but thats football.i would much rather make sure our brilliant goal difference is conserved,even if we do end up loosing rather than go for the jugular and perhaps get hammered:-)

  64. The problem is with a 5 man midfield is that, as we did last season, after you nab a goal, the common thing to do is to sit back and take the preasure.

    Can we do that against Arsnal? No, I don’t think we can, they will break us down. The 442 is playing to our strengths so I say TAKE IT TO THEM!

  65. CC I think FMA was given the proverbial fait accompli by Shepherd and he had no choice but to go along with Allardyce’s plans as he had barely got his feet under the table. Ironically had he brought in Harry Redknapp then who knows ?

  67. I think we’re worrying to much about our away form because the way I see it, we’re playing better away from home than at home this season, so I think we’ll get the following:

    Arsenil (a) – 1pt
    Blackburn (h) – 3pt
    Fulham (h) – 3pt
    Bolton (a) – 3pt
    Chelski (h) – 1pt

    Total – 11pt

    Our team has the never say die attitude now after the mauling we gave the Muckems, so we can take that with a 4-4-2 formation & build on it all the way until Xmas.. :)

    I’ll say right now, I think we’ll have at least 28pt by Xmas & be well on our way to PL survival… HWTL

  68. Nah,don’t see us getting 7points in Nov,in fact i put it down as low as 4points in NOV~~~

    Arsenal(a) 0points
    BlackBurn(H) 1point
    Fulham(H) 0point
    Bolton(a) 3points
    Chelsea(H) 0points

    But in all,if we can get 24points by year-end,that would be very good imo.

  69. Aside from all the benefits mentioned above for a 4-4-2 formation. It’s also important for us to field as many ‘natural finishers’ as possible. Carroll can 100% be relied upon for workrate, hustling, imposing, link up, but not necessarily finishing clear cut chances on the deck. Shola’s inclusion is important just on the basis of ‘if don’t score they will create openings for the other one to do so’.

  70. Carroll just has to put the same effort in, like he did v the smb’s & he’ll be sweet.
    Shola still has that little extra when it comes to skill. So should be in the team.

  71. CLINT nice to see colo and jonas not in nat/squad,no travel or injurys,got be good for toon :)

  74. honestly mates with that string of fixture if we pull 7 points from battle it would be brilliant. blackburn at home we have to beat, they are not as good as us on paper and we are at sjp, no reason we dont put them to the sword.

    fulham is a top half team. no disgrace to drop points at home to them but i think we are better then they are and anything less then a draw is shite. we have to lock dempsey down in that game to win.

    bolton at the reebok is a tough game but again i feel we have the better side and should take all three points but little piggy is probly more likely.

    chelsea at home is just as tough as arsenal away. if we can get a point off one of those fixtures i would claim it a success.

    i think 7 points is possible even 9 is reasonable but 5 is more likely. anything less then 5 outta the next 5 would be a disappointment.

    hwtl

  75. As long as we don’t concede early in the match, and get the all important 1st and 2nd goal, I think we would easily get 7-12 points in these next 5 games.
    We just need to be weary of Arsenal and Chelsea because they can catch us on the break and if we play the high line, I don’t expect much from those 2 games

  76. as i hope we will get more then 7 p if we ply like last sunday and i hope we will stay epl and next year we will ply ch europ