Back in contentionNewcastle United injury round-up and manager’s opinions ahead of Saturday’s visit to Old Trafford.
There’s good news for Alan Pardew as the word on the street is that Gabriel Obertan will be fit for Saturday’s game, although it remains to be seen whether or not he gets a start. Less encouraging news is that Tiote is still ‘doubtful’ with his knee ligament problem, although as far as I understand he hasn’t been ruled out yet.
Leon Best is likely to be back in contention for his usual place up front alongside Demba Ba too but I wonder how Pardew will set things up. Hatem Ben Arfa showed signs of some of the skills we bought him for when he played against Manchester City, but is it enough for Pardew to start him even with Best fit?
Anyway, Pardew fears a backlash from Man United’s midweek draw and said:
“I know he will be smarting from Wednesday’s draw, so unfortunately, we are on the back of a negative from Manchester United’s point of view, so it will be a tough game for us.” (more…)
De Jong just making absolutely sure he maims Ben ArfaVenue: City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester. Date: Sat 19th November, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Chris Foy (Linesmen: D Bryan & D.C.Richards).
Don’t forget that as usual, we will also be doing our usual “what the managers have been saying” review in the run up to the game, and also our regular “match banter” feature where you can make comments, share good streams for the game etc while the match is in progress. This should be going up around and hour before the kick off. Also as usual, we shall also be posting our report of the game some time after.
Well, it’s all gone quite swimmingly for Newcastle United so far, even against contenders such as Arsenal and Tottenham where we departed with honourable draws. However, the next three games (Man City, Man United and Chelsea) could well be reality check time, starting with this one away against table-topping, moneybags Manchester City.
Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Afra receives a letter from Nigel de Jong expressing regret over last season’s tackle, which resulted in a broken tibia and fibula for Ben Arfa.
Remember this?:
Difficult to forget it really!
Well apparently Nigel de Jong has written a letter to Hatem Ben Arfa ahead of Saturday’s game to express his regret over the challenge, although it’s unclear whether the letter included an apology. (more…)
50-50?Newcastle United have injury worries ahead of their visit to Eastlands on the weekend, so who will be fit enough to play on Saturday?
There are a couple of ways to look at our next three games against City, United and Chelsea: either we’re in with a chance of some points if we have a fully fit squad or we have no chance and it’s therefore a ‘good’ time to suffer injuries, given that we have to suffer them at all. Either way, we do have injuries and I thought I’d round up the latest news I can find on them.
Cheick Tiote had a medial ligament injury which has caused him to miss the last two games. Apparently he’s been working with medical staff all week to try and get fit for Saturday’s game and as far as I can tell it’s about 50-50 as to whether he’ll be fit in time. It’s (usually) caused by a high-impact landing on a slightly bent knee and the fact that Tiote has any chance of being fit for the game at all probably means it’s the lowest grade of medial ligament injury, which can apparently take anything from 2-10 weeks to heal.
Presumably Guthrie will continue to be the man to step in for Tiote if the Ivorian remains injured. (more…)
Newcastle United's dugout last Saturday.After a gutsy win over Everton this weekend I picked myself up from the floor after a nervous last 20 minutes or so and began to wonder, “Did the performance display Newcastle United’s squad depth and quality, or did it highlight our lack of it?”
Let me explain. Most so called “pundits” have attributed the main factor of our success to the ability to put out the same team each week without injuries, now with Gabriel Obertan, Yohan Cabaye and Sylvain Marveaux picking up little injury niggles as highlighted in a previous blog, I think a few fans are beginning to wonder how this will affect the team in the coming weeks against the big boys of the Premier League.
In the first 35 minutes or so at St James Park we dominated Everton in my opinion. They had a couple of chances with Seamus Coleman and Louis Saha but no real sustained pressure. Then the injuries began to appear. Cheik Tiote, having already been sidelined previously, was then joined by our midfield maestro, Cabaye. For me that turned the game on its head, something that Pardew agreed with. The lads that were brought on to plug the gaps so to speak (Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa etc) did the job and brought the 3 points home. However I can’t decide if it was a quality defensive display, or just Newcastle struggling with our 2nd string. (more…)
