Newcastle United eager to start Bruce era with a win
Posted on August 9th, 2019 | 5 Comments |
It has been another difficult summer for the Magpies, with off-field shenanigans once again dominating the news agenda.
Rafa Benitez’s departure as manager was inevitable, leaving fans up in arms about Mike Ashley’s continued ownership of the club.
Steve Bruce has been brought in to replace the Spaniard and it’s fair to say that the decision went down like a lead balloon with much of the fanbase.
Some supporters are threatening to boycott Newcastle United while Ashley remains at the club, but Bruce will be hoping that his team’s performances help them focus on matters on the pitch.
Newcastle are priced at 18/5 to pick up three points this weekend and there could be plenty of punters searching for Ladbrokes sign-up offers to take advantage of what look generous odds.
The Magpies wrapped up their preparations for the new campaign with a 2-1 victory over St Etienne last Saturday and there were plenty of positives to take from the game.
New signing Joelinton scored his second goal in two starts since joining the club and his work-rate is likely to endear him to the fans in double-quick time.
Matty Longstaff’s stunning goal on his senior home debut was another standout moment, highlighting that Newcastle have some decent prospects at the club.
With Allan Saint-Maximin, Jetro Willems and Emil Krafth all available to make their competitive debuts this weekend, Newcastle’s squad isn’t in bad shape.
Hanging on to midfielder Sean Longstaff is an added bonus, while Andy Carroll’s arrival on a one-year deal is a no-brainer given that he has taken a massive wage cut to return to the North East.
Florian Lejeune, DeAndre Yedlin and Matt Ritchie are expected to miss out on Sunday, but they are the only likely absentees.
Hector Bellerin, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Rob Holding are all ruled out for the visitors, but new signings Dani Ceballos and Nicolas Pepe should be available for selection.
Arsenal were busy on deadline day, adding Kieran Tierney and David Luiz to their defensive ranks to complete a successful summer transfer window.
Newcastle have an awful recent record against Arsenal, winning just two of their last 25 meetings in all competitions with the North London side.
There have been just 14 goals in the last seven matches between these two sides and another low-scoring encounter could be on the cards this weekend.
Under 2.5 goals can be backed at odds of 27/25 and that looks the percentage call with Newcastle likely to try and keep things tight at the back.
We made Norwich look like Barcelona on Saturday. There’s all this talk about ‘pressing’ football nowadays but we didn’t get close to them at all, we just stood back let them do what whatever they wanted to. It’s understandable if Man City have 63% of the possession in a game against the likes of us, but Norwich?