Newcastle United: Taking on the "big guns" next.The testing never stops ’round here! As we go into the lull that is international football and worse still, friendly internationals, we see our first major flood of injuries hobble into the Saint James’ Park sickbay.
At least we’ll have a couple of weeks to try and get over some of them. All the while attempting to ready ourselves for the next round of tests. Next up will be the Manchester’s of City and United. With City returning to the place where Hatem Ben Arfa was so cruelly hacked down and the Lads were cheated out of a result with ref decisions, what with a dodgy penalty for them, and a clear one for us turned down. Citeh have spent even bigger since then and it’ll be one tough game. Of course the ‘pundits’ will at least be satisfied that we’re being tested properly for once. If we get an better ref, who knows what can happen?
I saw enough of Man City’s game at QPR to suggest that if you have a go at them, goals are available as their back line looks a little suspect at times. It’ll be interesting to see if Hatem Ben Arfa gets to play this game, and it would be even better if he did and made them pay for last seasons debacle. (more…)
Sylvain Marveaux: Big groin history.As most of you no doubt know, Newcastle United suffered several injuries during last Saturday’s early kick-off against Everton.
Well before the game, Alan Pardew’s usual right wing choice, Gabriel Obertan, had to pull out from selection with a toe infection. Then, during the game itself, Yohan Cabaye was the first to go down with his groin. Apparently, he felt it very early in the game but struggled on, eventually having to pull out in the 36th minute when he was replaced by Dan Gosling. Next came Sylvain Marveaux, who was replaced by Sammy Ameobi in the 53rd minute after a foul by Jonny Heitinga shortly after the the resumption of play for the second half. In an afternoon of groin and toe worries, striker, Leon Best, was also pulled off with both groin and toe problems in the 72nd minute and replaced with Hatem Ben Arfa.
Speaking on Cabaye and Marveaux’s woes, Alan Pardew commented:
“They’re both groin injuries, and I’d guess they’d be difficult to heal in two weeks. We’ll have to wait and see.”(more…)
Essential for the next 3 games?The international break has come at an opportune time for Newcastle United as injuries to the squad begin to mount up.
I think we all knew that a potential Achilles Heel for us has been the onset of injuries as the season progresses.
It is of course a problem for any of the teams that can’t afford to buy and maintain a second side that’s made up of the sort of quality teams like Manchester City have, but it’s probably also made more significant for us because we’ve carved out our good start to the season with – more of less – the same 11 players.
Cheick Tiote has a knee injury, Leon Best has a toe and groin injury and Yohan Cabaye – who was substituted fairly early on Saturday – has a groin problem. Apparently none of those three are likely to play for their countries during this international spell, although Best and Cabaye will join their squads to be assessed by the Irish and French locums respectively. Sylvain Marveaux joins the list of wounded too with a groin injury sustained during his sting against Everton. (more…)
Howard Kendall you dirty old goat!Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Date: Sat 5th November, 2011. Kick-off: 12.45pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (Linesmen: S Ledger & A Watts). TV: Sky Sports 2 / HD2.
Hello and welcome to our preview for Newcastle United’s home clash with the “Toffees” of Everton.
Don’t forget that as per usual, I will also be doing our usual “what the managers are 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.
It’s always particularly hard to predict how a game will go against the Toffees at this stage of the season. Good team, good manager. However, they do seem to have a recent history of starting erratically in the early stages of the season, then finishing with a burst to either scrape into, or just miss out on a European place. If they started seasons they way they finished them, they would almost certainly have made the Champion’s League more often than that one time in 2005. Their start this season has been dire, and sees them currently lying in 16th. However it must be said that have had had some stiff opposition and some bad luck too so far.
They have shirt hating weight watchers too!Venue: Britannia Stadium, Sir Stanley Matthews Way, Stoke-upon-Trent. Date: Monday, October 26th, 2011. Kick-off: 8:00pm. Referee: Mike Dean. TV: Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports HD 1.
Well, The Magpies must pick themselves up from their disappointing capitulation against Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup and prepare themselves for a trip to another of the nation’s great beauty spots, Stoke-upon-Trent.
A game against Tony Pulis’s hard tackling long throwing giants will be no Vicarage tea party, that’s for sure, and though there probably won’t be much “Champagne football” on the menu, it will be a stiff test for the lads. Especially so after a gruelling extra time midweek thriller which ultimately ended in disappointment. As if that wasn’t enough, we could also be without our own head of enforcement, Mr T, but more on that in the team news. Consolation for us however is that whilst the Magpies were exerting themselves in the ultimately doomed encounter at Ewood Park, Stoke were also playing in the competition, suffering the same kind of disappointment when they were knocked out by Liverpool in a 2-1 defeat.
If you won’t be at the game, make sure to check out our regular “match banter” feature, which will be posted around an our before kick off. (more…)
