Swansea v Newcastle – Premier League match preview

Swans v Magpies
Swans v Magpies
Newcastle United travel deep into Wales tomorrow where they will make only their third ever visit to Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium.

We’ve not done too badly on our previous two trips to the Liberty, with a 1-1 draw being registered in the Championship followed up with a 2-0 victory there last season.

However Swansea are a tough nut to crack these days, arguably tougher than they have ever been. They’ve recently won their first major trophy in the shape of the League Cup and Michael Laudrup has installed a “tough to beat” mentality whilst retaining the attractive passing game that was started by Robert Martinez. Aided by the goalscoring exploits of Michu, who is joint 3rd highest league goalscorer this term, Swansea go in search of a first league double over United since 1980.

Newcastle:

Hatem Ben Arfa may only feature in a cameo role after Alan Pardew revealed that he is less than impressed with the physical condition of the Frenchman. The original five week estimate of Tim Krul’s absence appears to be true so Rob Elliot will continue in goal with youngster Jak Alnwick deputising in the absence of the injured Steve Harper.

Fabricio Coloccini is officially doubtful after injuring his back against Southampton although it’s since transpired that the injury could be worse than first feared and we could be without Colo for a matter of weeks rather than days.

Ryan Taylor and Dan Gosling are nearing their comebacks, with the former eyeing a return against Southampton and the latter making an appearance on the bench for the recent Europa League match against Metalist Kharkiv.

Shane Ferguson and Sammy Ameobi are now both out on loan to Birmingham and Middlesbrough respectively so are obviously unavailable, and they are likely to be joined by other youngsters going out on loan in the near future.

Swansea:

Neil Taylor and Chico Flores are missing for Michael Laudrup who otherwise has a full squad to choose from for the visit of the Magpies.

Previously…

As mentioned earlier, Swansea are looking for a league double over United after their 2-1 victory at St James’ Park earlier on in the season. However United historically have the better record home and away against the Welsh side.

There have been 32 games played between the two sides in all competitions with Newcastle coming out on top on 19 occasions compared to just 9 for Swansea. There have been 4 draws between the two sides.

At Swansea (Liberty Stadium and previously at Vetch Field) there have been 15 matches played between the two sides. Newcastle have won 9, Swansea have won 5 with the the one remaining game ending in a draw. However despite the one-sided nature of results between the two in Swansea, both teams have scored exactly the same amount of goals against each other (23) at a rate of 1.53 goals per game.

Stats and facts:

Mike Williamson could make his 100th appearance for United, assuming he makes the bench in the place of Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa who will more than likely replace Fabricio Coloccini in the starting line up.

Gabriel Obertan could make his 50th career Premier League appearance.

Much has been made of Papiss Cisse being offside “all the time” but he isn’t the worst culprit in the league. The Senegal striker is caught offside an average of 1.1 times per game. Christian Benteke is the worst offside offender in the league getting caught out an average of 1.7 times per game.

Swansea have not lost a game after taking the lead this season. In fact they’ve only dropped the three points once by drawing one solitary game after taking the lead.

United have lost twice in the last eight games in all competitions while Swansea have won just three times in their last 12 league games.

Final thought…

We’ve looked a lot better in recent weeks and the gap between us and the teams at the bottom of the table is slowly getting bigger. However Swansea will give us a thorough examination and we’ll need to be up for it if we want to continue our upwards momentum.

Will Swansea have a hangover from their League Cup win? Will that victory spur them on and give them some extra impetus? I’m hoping it is the former but I somehow don’t think Brain Laudrup will allow it and we may struggle to come away with a point, which personally I’d be delighted with.

Howay the lads!

Date: Saturday, 2nd March, 2013

Time: 3pm

Venue: Liberty Stadium

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

96 thoughts on “Swansea v Newcastle – Premier League match preview

  1. Maybe ‘brain’ Laudrup was actually not far off the money! This will be a tight game, but Michu is on a roll.

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  2. A good read, it’ll be a tough one that’s for sure and I’d be more than happy with a draw…here’s hoping they do have a “cup final hangover” though and we can scrape a win. :mrgreen:

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  3. If Liverpool put 5 past them surely we can sneak a win? If we play as well we can we will beat them, assuming Elliot staylor and mbiwa gel.

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  4. Maybe Cisse is offside a lot because the ball isn’t being played through quick enough, he plays on the shoulder of defenders and thats no bad thing for me, we will be 5 v 5 in the midfield tomorrow and hopefully Tiote will get to grips with Brittain who makes them tick.
    Havn’t felt this confident for ages even though we are aiming for only our second away win of the season, if the mackems can win there, it cant be that much of a trip to fear.

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  5. robert

    I agree mate last year as soon as cabaye picked the ball up he knew where cisse was and played the ball to him without eveb looking. cisse makes intellegent runs and its up to other players to be on the same wave length in my opinion.

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  6. This will be a tough game IMO, I’d love to think that Swansea could suffer a cup hangover but I think Laudrup is a very professional Manager and whilst this is his first managerial trophy, he’s been in this position as a player plenty of times before. By that I mean having the mental approach to continue the season, and think he’s a strong enough manager to get that across to his players.
    I think we need to play the way we did against Saints – after their first goal that is. I think Swansea knock it around quickly as Saints do now so we have to work hard to close them down, win it back then break quickly through Gouffran, Sissoko and Cisse.
    When I was looking through the remaining fixtures the other week I fancied a draw from this one and I’d take that result now to be honest.

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  7. Newkie – I tell you what I like about Saylor, he’s always encouraging the players around him. Against Saints Elliott made acouple of saves, not worldies by any means but Saylor was straight over patting him on the back and bigging him up and he does it with Krul as well. I reckon that helps their confidence throughout the game.
    I don’t have great concerns about Elliott, Saylor or MYM from what I’ve seen and who knows Elliott could become an official unsung hero by the end of the season.

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  8. Some great deals on tickets at the mo. Just got Stoke, Anzi and Fulham for me and me dad for £100.

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  9. Regarding Cisse, they are only intelligent runs if they are timed right. I think with players like Cabaye, Sissoko, Gouffran, and Benny (when he finally returns) those passes should come abit quicker but I think Cisse also has to time his runs better. 1or 2 offsides a game and you can say its down to poor passes, but the amount of times he’s caught offside, for me he has to learn to hold his run by 2 or 3 seconds, or play 3 or 4 yards deeper coz I think he has the pace to beat most CBs in the league.

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  10. Sharpy-I don’t doubt their individual abilities but those back 3 positions are where players need to be confident and error free. I know staylor has confidence, too much at times, but we need the other two to get to a good start. Opposition sides seem to be targetting our left quite a lot as well, so Mbiwa will have his work cut out unless Santon is focused..

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  11. There have been times when our players have been in no/a bad position to pass, every man and his dog can see it, but Cisse sprints past the defence regardless and worse-sometimes just jogs ahead of the defence, not even attempting to swivel back!

    I like Cisse, I have faith and I didn’t want another striker brought in to unsettle him and replace him because of his average-not poor-goal return. But you can’t make excuses for it, he just seems wary of 1v1 opportunities.

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  12. dj

    ya can’t sit on ya da’s knee at the match like ya dee watching the footy in the hoose mind – else they’ll hoy ya oot.

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  13. Newkie – aye I know what you mean about teams targeting Santon and I think if they go with Dyer and Routledge our full backs will have their hands full like. To be fair tho, I think if Krul and Colo were in our defence would still have a torrid time with the likes of Michu and Henandez, De Guzman has become abit of a goal threat recently as well. I think we will make mistakes and I don’t expect a clean sheet TBH, but as long as heads don’t drop if we go a goal down like we did against Saints. I think that was one thing that impressed me most about last weekend, we didn’t drop our **** after the early goal or even after they scored an early equalizer in the second half. We stuck to our game and didn’t panic. I think that will key to picking up the points we need between now and the end of the season.

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  14. DJG – I’m nee Voderman, but that’s bloody good value that like. Was it a 3 match bundle or something like mate?

    Newkie – aye I’m not slanging Cisse off by what I’m saying. I think he’s a very good CF, and the fact he’s getting caught offside so many times means he’s making those runs, which for a player who is (arguably) having an ‘off’ season, is still a good thing. Like I say, if he just held his run by afew seconds or started a yard or 2 further back he’d have the beating of most defenders and could find himself having an extra 4 or 5 shots a game.

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  15. Sharpy-Yeah, true. Agree with you about Soton as well, fully expected them to score another one after starting so well and thought we’d be hard pressed to ever score 3 goals, but with a bit of luck we got 4 anyway :mrgreen:

    Could be a blessing in disguise to be without Colo, Cabs obviously has more fight and he constantly comes back to pick the ball up from defence-should be able to shore up Mbiwa with some frenchie pillow talk if its not going well at any time. 😉

    They will cause us problems but I can’t see any of their lot being able to deal with the power and pace of Sissoko-most teams can’t but Swansea especially, small midfield and in defence Williams is strong but clumsy imo.

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  16. Sharpy-Agreed. Some of those early runs are probably a sign of his desparation to score, now he has a wonder goal under his belt he can get back to business and will hopefully be more assured 😛

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  17. ROY from last thread,nee bother mate,batty does give me a hours break every day,to make his dinner like 😀 😀

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  18. For some unknown reason I’ve had a good feeling about this game for weeks. We’ll get something but I’d love a win.

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  19. Newkie, Agree re Collocini, he looks like he has lost a yard of pace lately, probably his head isn’t right at the moment but he is way below par and the injury he sustained was from a diabolical bit of defending when he could have got rid but ended up being hemmed in.
    Mbwia looks quality although only time will tell but like Pardew said, losing Collocini and Krul 2 months ago would have been disaster but now we have quality cover, and Hiadara waiting for his chance too!

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  20. Newkie @4

    Actually that day Swans are not playing their full strength team. Even Michu was not playing. Practically Liverpool scored 5 against Swansea reserves.

    @ Toonsy
    Sorry for being nitpicking but it is not Southampton game, its S*nderland game which was targetted by Raylor to return. 😉

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  21. Newkie – I also think the team will have to get used to functioning without Capt Colo coz I still reckon he’ll push for a move in the summer. I’m not saying he won’t get back into the team this season but it will give Pardew a chance to see the MYM/Saylor partnership in a competitive game or two before deciding what he’s looking to bring in in the summer.

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  22. For all people keep saying Cisse is always offside, I saw a stat somewhere earlier today (can’t for the life of me find it) saying that on average he is offside only 1.1 times per game.

    To me that’s not too bad, anyone know if this stat is correct?

    Think we may get a score draw out of the game tomorrow, I’d be delighted with a win. I think we’ll play on the counter which suits our new pacey players against a hopefully ‘hungover’ Swansea side.

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  23. I also think Colo not playing may be a blessing in disguise, Mbiwa is far more athletic that Colo, pace and agility will really help against a nimble Swansea side.

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  24. From what i have seen, Laudrup sometimes played 3 wingers behind Michu (Pablo, Routledge & Dyer). Like Newkie said, their midfields are likely small so they may struggle with Sissoko and co.

    But since possesion football is their forte, we are likely to see they hold possesion for most of the time with us counter attacking (like last season’s game).

    Should we go on attacking or keep it tight?

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  25. Toon trw-I was being a little tongue in cheek mate but I think its unfair to say they were a reserve side, they had vorm between the sticks and they still had a good midfield out there, point being we’re better than liverpool :mrgreen: Honestly don’t think swansea outclassed us that much last time we played, they had some luck and with a bit of the same we should do well.

    Sharpy-Maybe mate…still can’t see why we’d ever let Colo go cheap though, hoping he just mans up by the summer tbh.

    For some reason this game brings out doom and gloomers who insist football is all about passing and possession stats and not about scoring goals and predicted we would get battered in our last 3 games against them. I reckon we have a good chance.

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  26. Cisse isn’t offside as much as some people think…

    Stats up to Jan

    Player Name Games Played No. of offsides

    Nikica Jelavic 21 38
    Christian Benteke 17 29
    Grant Holt 16 25
    Arouna KonI 20 24
    Fernando Torres 20 23
    Romelu Lucak 8 21
    Jamie Mackie 13 20
    Rickie Lambert 19 20
    Luis Suárez 20 19
    Papiss Demba Cissé 19 18

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  27. I see Pardew is disappointed in Ben Arfa’s level of fitness after injury. Why wasn’t he being monitored to make sure he was staying in shape? Surely a trainer is assigned to players recovering from injury. I guess in Ben Arfa’s case he was in France getting treatment but now we have a player who is not available due to lack of fitness. Is this acceptable to the club with so many French players? Are they all going to want to go off to France when injured? How will this work if the player isn’t responsible enough to stay as fit as possible (there must be lots of temptations while over there)? Surely the club will have to have a policy regarding this?

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  28. Bearing in mind Cisse has often played on the wing this season, he has still been offside a fair amount. And whereas many strikers are offside from set pieces (free kicks swung in, not many of ours are guilty as our players don’t attack them..) Cisse has been far more obvious in making his run too early. You can see it in the looks and shouts of other team mates, Cabaye, Benny, Tiote Ba and Shola have all made such gestures/remarks from memory, I doubt they are all wrong.

    It’s not to say he’s a bad player, it’s probably down to nerves-however I do get the feeling he’s not exactly the type of striker to get onto a through ball, outpace the defence and slot it calmly past the keeper. Seems to me he needs the team to come forward with him, move the defence around and allow him the space to find the ball-inside the box or out-so he can just get a reactionary touch on it to put it past the keeper.

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  29. Since Cisse is our primary striker (almost our only decent striker) we’re going to have to play to his strengths as you say Newkie. He isn’t a Ben Arfa who can beat 2 or 3 players and then score. His strength is in getting into the box unmarked and shooting on goal. Because he doesn’t generally beat defenders he is constantly on the edge of being offside. He just doesn’t seem to be aware enough until it’s too late. Surely Pardew needs to develop a strategy that works better with him. Balls from wingers or advanced midfielders who have pushed into the box seem best suited to him. Forget the long ball to him as his control isn’t that great and neither is his turn. Purely a shooter. When on form he can be devastating but not consistent at all this year.

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  30. G2 said before cissie hasn’t been right yet,he will come good,look at the lad at Everton could not stop scoring and fans saying we should have signed him,this yr he cannot hit a barn door sitting on the hinges

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  31. Hope you’re right ice but is it going to happen this season mate? He is slowly picking up the pace and with better players around him this is his chance. Otherwise I think Pardew will put more pressure on Llambias to bring in another striker this summer (probably up to Ashley to force Llambias to do his job again. 😥

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  32. So chuffed today, my dad said we were gunna go see the stoke game and then I found out I got an unconditional to Stirling uni. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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  33. Watched PEA the other day in the French Cup and he looked very decent. He would be a great addition to the club. Can we count on Ben Arfa more next season? I’m very disappointed with the number of games he’s missing again this season. These are his prime years and you don’t get them back. Surely he must be frustrated as well.

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  34. Congratulations Andymag. I hope it goes well for you there. What is your area of study?

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  35. Good read Toonsy, looking forward to it and i’m sure we’ll keep our unbeaten run going.
    I agree with Robert @ 5 and have said lots of times it’s not always Cisse’s fault that the ball is played too late to often 😉 and can’t believe how much stick Cisse gets on here at times, it seems he cant please some, but maybe they blame him for Ba fuking of 😕

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  36. I had suspected we wouldn’t see Colo tomorrow with a back injury. I hope Mbiwa and Saylor pair up well together. Saylor has to stay fit now as we only have Willo to come in. Still too thin at CB (what else is new)? Ihope the owner isn’t thinking we can get away with no spending in the summer because I can’t see it if we really want to press on several fronts.

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  37. Cisse is in a very tough position being our only skilled striker Big Dave. He looks very tense now and probably is pushing too hard to prove himself to the supporters. Wonder goals aren’t the way to consistency I don’t think but it’s such a big part of his game. Can he be a 20 goal scorer in the Prem? I’m still not sure.

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  38. Congrats Andy, although personally I’m not sure why you wouldn’t want to come down to this green and pleasant land and escape the horrors north of the border.

    Couldn’t be the fees could it… :mrgreen:

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  39. Does anyone else no longer bat an eyelid when we get an injury. Don’t know if its cus we’re used to it or cus we now have decent backups but I don’t really care anymore.

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  40. Newkie
    Thought about applying to a couple of English ones but they don’t understand the Scottish education system and so ask too much. Scottish ones are nice though and no fees help 😉 .

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  41. GEORDIETWO @ 44 well he has scored 22 goals a season for the last 2 season, ok it’s obvious he wont be getting 20 + this season.

    Johno @ 49 ballicks your pulling my leg ❓ ❓ ❓

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  42. Yes Andy. Reading on twitter he turned a move to sheff wed in the summer cause he wanted more money. Says it all. Hope no club ever offers him a deal

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  43. Ice I was going for a 2-1 win for us but after hearing that the plastic gangsta Nile the knob Ranger is away i’ll still be happy with a draw 😀

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  44. With our new all French line up and with Tiote snapping at their heels I fancy 1-3 toon tomorrow.

    Howay the lads…

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  45. Great news to hear that we’re finally rid of that leech. 😀

    Do you think if we all chip in together we can spell out “**** OFF” in £5 notes for him?

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  46. Epilsonj – We should do it with coins. I mean after all its not like us mere mortals have access to £20 notes 🙄

    He could have done it proper gangster and used £50 notes surely 😆

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  47. Now that we’re a bit short on the gangsta front I feel a new role for Willo coming on. Enough of that white middle-class look, he needs some bling and some tattoos :mrgreen:

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  48. Epsilonj
    Doesn’t Debuchy fit that bill, looks like he might mug you 😕 , we love him all the same though 😀

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  49. Dave
    Not just the tatts, nothing against them, just his general appearance kind of suggests ‘bad boy’. 😕

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  50. Andy 😉 😀 I know mate and im not having a go but just interested , what does make you think he looks like a bad boy if it’s not the tats ❓

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  51. Dave
    Maybe a bit, don’t mind tatts but not a fan of the ones that cover the whole arm(s) like a sleeve, bit of a prejudice but generally looks quite ‘gangsta’.

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  52. Andy I will have to get you a link for pic my daughter took for a study for some group she done at uni on the general publics misconceptions against tattooed people, she has pics of a surgeon with just a vest and shorts on then a pic of him in his work clothes, also a pic of a top barrister with vest a shorts then with his robes and wig on, I think it was somewhere around 96-97% of people didn’t or couldn’t relate the tattooed version to the profession, because although they had full body suits with there work clothes on no tatts were visible

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  53. Dave
    Generally judge a person on personality but am pretty judgmental on strangers. Bad I know, but am a self-confessed snob, not for any reason other than I generally don’t trust people.

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