Chelsea v Newcastle United match preview. Pardew after a strong performance.

Posted on May 13th, 2011 | 17 Comments |

Alan Pardew's Newcastle visit Chelsea for their last away match of the 2010/2011 season.
Hoping to finish strongly
Newcastle United take on Chelsea on Sunday in the season’s penultimate match.

With Premier League safety now guaranteed we head to Stamford Bridge on Sunday for our last away game of the season.

Man Utd look to have the title sown up anyway but if we take points of Chelsea we’ll make it a certainty. This is something that will please Danny Simpson as he is keen to help his former club win the title. Danny said:

“I want Manchester United to win the league.

“I want to beat Chelsea and everybody at the club wants to beat Chelsea, but on Sunday, it will mean a little bit more [if United lose at Blackburn] because of the lads I know at Manchester United if we can get something there.

“We know it could be a massive game and if it is, I will probably get a phone call from Sir Alex. One or two players might give me a text as well.”

Taking points at Stamford Bridge will be no easy task though. Chelsea have made a decent sprint towards the finish line and, until last week’s defeat at Old Trafford, they hadn’t lost in the League since 6th February (0-1 against Liverpool).

The latest noises from the manager and players suggest the Toon is targeting a top 10 finish and if we want to be in with a chance of that we most likely need to take points off Chelsea.

Ahead of the game Pardew – who doesn’t seem to share Simpson’s view that we’ll have any influence on the title – has said:

“You have to say it’ll probably be a different type of atmosphere there after Sunday, as they can’t realistically win the title.

“It might make the job a little bit easier, but nevertheless they’re a top, top team.

“They’ll still want to finish the season strongly, just like us.

“It’ll be a tough game – playing Chelsea always is. We’ll be going to try to put in a strong performance, and come away with something.”

Referring to the cup game where we beat Chelsea 4-3, Pardew continues:

“I was at the cup game. It was a funny one – I didn’t think Chelsea were at the top of their game that night.

“Newcastle played very well, but this will be completely different, with different personnel.

“We’ll go there with confidence, but we know we’ll have to be at our best if we’re going to take anything from the game.”

Apparently, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has fears for his job as a mere 2nd place in the Premier League is said to be disappointing to Roman Abramovich after last season’s double, which sounds a bit ludicrous to me but there you have it.

Team News

With Nolan and Harper joining an injury list that already includes Ben Arfa (broken leg), Best & Ireland (ankle), Gosling (knee), Guthrie (shin) and Williamson (broken arm), Alan Pardew’s options are becoming a bit more limited. It’s not helped by Tiote’s 14 yellow cards which means Pardew will be reluctant to use him in the last two games as another card would mean he could miss the first three matches of next season.

This leaves us with a team that will most likely look something like: Krul, Simpson, S.Taylor, Coloccini, Enrique, R.Taylor, Ferguson?, Barton, Gutierrez, Ameobi and Lovenkrands.

Rumour has it that Alan Smith is back in contention, although I’d suggest he’s unlikely to start. There was also a tiny chance that Leon Best might be back in contention but Pardew doubts it, saying:

“We’ll look forward to having Alan involved in training on Friday and Saturday, and we’ll make a decision for Sunday. I’m not sure about Bestie. He’s probably a bit behind Alan, but we’ll see.”

There are other options: Ranger could always take up a midfield role or Pardew could always play a 4-3-3, but I reckon that’s unlikely.

It’s probable that our defence will be sorely tested with threats from Drogba, Torres, Malouda and Lampard, and the likes of Steven Taylor and Coloccini will need to be at their absolute best if they want to keep that quartet of talent out.

The Chelsea team will most probably line up as: Cech, Ivanovich, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Essien, Lampard, Malouda, Torres, Drogba.

Lee Mason officiates, kick off is at 1:30PM on Sunday and it’s live on Sky Sports.

Howay the lads!

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

17 Responses

  1. not much of a chance on this one i think. esp with our squad decimated and with jose’s head now looking towards liverpool, who knows what kind of performance he will put in. my heart wants us to win of course but i can only see one real outcome from this one and it dont look good.
    on diff note. i like the new kit…its much better than pumas first effort ffs!

  2. Ancellotti’s worried about his job if he finishes second?

    Get him here, do that and he’s got a job for life!!!!

  3. And.. just to add to the rumour mill – take it as you will as it’s from the runours site:

    12 May 2011 10:24:53
    Inside Info: Seb Larrson is a done deal, He’s big mates with B’Hams Stu Parnaby (Durham lad), I also know Stu, an he confirmed. Other deals almost done are, Elmander, M’Bengue and Rondo.
    Sow deal is also a big possibility however wages are a potential hitch. This is all genuine info.

  4. Yeah Lesh, seems a bit daft. Did the double last season and gets second this season and that’s ‘disappointing’ to the Russian oligarch!

  6. “Ancellotti’s worried about his job if he finishes second?

    Get him here, do that and he’s got a job for life!!!!”

    Those kind of results weren’t good enough for SBR. And while I’m on the subject, Freddy Shepherd only pulled the trigger – it was fans who supplied the ammunition, because 5th place wasn’t good enough!

  7. Aye Tony, we’re a fickle bunch aren’t we.

    This season’s realistic aim was to finish 17th at worst, we’ve bettered that and may even end up at a respectable mid-table spot but…..

    We could aim for the moon, hit the stars and even that wouldn’t be good enough!

  8. Tony Toon says:
    May 13, 2011 at 8:44 am (Edit)

    Those kind of results weren’t good enough for SBR. And while I’m on the subject, Freddy Shepherd only pulled the trigger – it was fans who supplied the ammunition, because 5th place wasn’t good enough!

    ====

    *Some* fans Tony. I think there were quite a lot who were still behind SBR (possibly even the majority) and were disgusted at his sacking.

  9. I agree totally Hugh … and those same fans – or I suspect the new generation of those who got us the name of delusional are at it again. I can’t understand the number of posters who at the beginning of the season were saying that 17th was the aim, only to moan constantly about everything whenever we have dropped into the bottom half of the table. Fickle is right ….

  11. “Pardew after a strong performance”

    as opposed to the Abject one against the Red Bin Dippers ?

    As for being fickle………………I wanted more than 17th place before the start of the season because we clearly had the nucleus of a BPL team albeit with some limitations in numbers. However after the Fatman took the wedge for AC suddenly 17th was acceptable.

    As a fan I wont be happy until he’s long gone and we dont have to prostitute ourselves at the Court of the Sports Direct King.

  12. If Pardew is after a strong finish, how come he`s playing Smith instead of Tiote ?
    It`s gonna be a gimme for Cheowsee, probably play a bunch of kids and the bench scraps.
    Strong finish my ass, who does this guy think he`s talking too ?

  13. More nonsense from Pardew.
    Yeah I bet Alex Ferguson will be on the Blower all day to Simpson zzzzzzzz…..who is he kidding.
    :lol:

  14. Nothing like getting the excuses in first :)

    “Referring to the cup game where we beat Chelsea 4-3, Pardew continues I was at the cup game. It was a funny one – I didn’t think Chelsea were at the top of their game that night.

    “Newcastle played very well, but this will be completely different, with different personnel.

    “We’ll go there with confidence, but we know we’ll have to be at our best if we’re going to take anything from the game.”

    Soz Pardwho but we were OK on the night and played with a degree of ability and confidence not seen before from a “reserve” side. Unfortunately that reserve side is our first team now and we all know whose fault that is :(

    So the quicker you and your fat boss get out of Toon the better

  15. A wild upset and NUFC would have the chance to finish with 13 wins, which would be very respectable. Next year, it must be more wins than losses and a push for Europa. I’m getting too old for more team and season destroying shenanigans!

  16. Krul
    Simmo, Saylor, Coloccini, Jose
    Raylor, Joey, Ferguson
    Ranger, Ameobi, Jonas

    and dont even bother to take Cheikh let him sort out his insurance this weekend !

  17. Tony Toon says:

    “Those kind of results weren’t good enough for SBR. And while I’m on the subject, Freddy Shepherd only pulled the trigger – it was fans who supplied the ammunition – because 5th place wasn’t good enough!”

    Dont blame the previous FatMan for this as its well documented that SJH apparently listened to “fans” on the plane back from Marseilles who claimed that SBR had “lost the plot” after we came away from the Stade Velodrome with nowt.

    Yes we missed Bellamy and Dyer as well as Woodgate on that fateful night, something which shouldnt have mattered if the Board had been halfway supportive of the great man instead of lining their own pockets at the expense of team development.