Manchester United v Newcastle United – Premier League match preview

Old Trafford
Old Trafford
Coming up next we have one of those fixtures I tend to dread during the course of the season. Manchester United away,or at all to be fair, is not a fixture that has been full of rich pickings for us over the years.

And after picking up just one point in our opening two games of the season it could be argued that the need to pick up points in a traditionally awful fixture for us is actually quite acute. Surely it’s not panic stations just yet though?

Well no it isn’t and shouldn’t be as we’re still in August, but with a recent tendency to drift into excruciatingly long streaks without wins or points it is something I, and I’m sure others, are quite keen to avoid. To make matters worse we have an audience with BT Sport to contend with so many eyes will be watching just how we perform at Old Trafford. Incidentally, it’s the word ‘perform’ I like to focus on in games like this.

It was the performance in the game at Swansea that was sadly lacking closely followed by a lack of discipline by Daryl Janmaat which, when combined, meant we were destined to leave South Wales with nothing. It’s hard enough to play at the Liberty Stadium without going a goal down within ten minutes and playing more than half the match with ten men. But in the end at least we shut up shop tactically and stopped ourselves from being on the end of one of those all to frequent hammerings.

Manchester United:

In a boost for United’s (our United, the proper one) ropey defence, the Red Devils will be without the services of Phil Jones and Marouane Fellaini who miss out through injury and suspension respectively. Also absent will be David de Gea who has been told that he will not be selected by Louis van Gaal until the transfer window is shut and his future is resolved, at least until January.

Newcastle:

As alluded to earlier, Daryl Janmaat will miss out through suspension following his silly antics at the Liberty Stadium. Moussa Sissoko is unlikely to feature after picking up a muscle strain in that same game and being substituted at half-time while Paul Dummett edges closer to a return but is yet to regain match fitness.

New signing Florian Thauvin could be in line to make his debut for the club after the completion of his move from Marseille while Cheik Tiote may make his first start of the campaign meaning that Vurnon Anota will drop back into the right-back slot to cover the absent Janmaat.

Previously…

Look away. Look away now.

We’ve only managed one league win at Old Trafford in the Premier League era which came back in December 2013 courtesy of a goal from Yohan Cabaye. Remember that one? You should because you then have to be of a certain age to remember our previous league victory at Old Trafford which came in February 2012.

In fact in all of our games in all competitions at Manchester United (77 games) we’ve only won on 10 occasions and walked away with a draw on 20 occasions. The other 47 games have ended in defeat with our biggest one being a 6-0 defeat in the 2007/2008 season. Although on a positive note we did once win 7-1 at Old Trafford although I doubt anyone on here witnessed that as it was 1927. Well maybe Icedog did….

Stats and facts…

Newcastle have lost 25 Premier League games against Manchester United. So basically they’ve beaten us more than any other team has managed to beat us.

Manchester United have won 15 of their last 19 league games at Old Trafford.

Wayne Rooney has scored 12 Premier League goals against Newcastle. Only Aston Villa have fared worse having seen the striker score 14 goals against them.

Final thought…

Not quite final though but I’ve been having a chat with the lads over at theunitedpages.com which you can read here and sums up my thoughts on the game and some of my thoughts on NUFC in general.

In short I’m feeling too confident about this weekend and just hope for an improved performance.

Howay the lads!

Date: Saturday, 22nd August, 2015

Time: 12:45pm – Live on BT Sport

Venue: Old Trafford

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.

673 thoughts on “Manchester United v Newcastle United – Premier League match preview

  1. AUSSIE MAGPIE FAN
    😆 you want to bench our best right back 😯 can ya smell what ya shoveling over there 😆

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  2. Mbemba is doing a good job there… we are not suffering and its a good opportunity for some one to step up and show what they can do,… remember most of the neggars on this blog are predicting no points from our first 10 games anyway…. so what have we got to lose! 😉

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  3. AUSSIE MAGPIE FAN
    Mbemba looked like a fish out of water at right back guess you missed the 2nd half of the man utd game

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  4. everyone was a fish out of water or were you only looking at the right back position.. 😉

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  5. Oh dear. 😯
    How many times does Psychs have to apologise for being a ******. 😛
    He’s done it loads of times. 😆
    Good choice to ask though Psychsy. You know the saying, “It takes one ……. 😛

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  6. Mind when James Perch was here playing right back, there was a stronger case than Tim Kril. 😯

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  7. deary me, did you and Vegas trade old dad jokes over that pint of beer you shared! 😯

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  8. Early days in the h2h league, so the table is a little irrelevant. The only real interest at this stage (for me) is who hasn’t lost and who hasn’t won, and who has been lucky and who not.

    Unbeaten so far:
    1 hitmans army 9 (155)
    2 Dubai Toon United 9 (154)
    3 Natalie Sawyer Fan 9 (145)
    4 Born Winner FC 9 (114)

    Without a point:

    17 Shteves Shcitty 0 (131)
    18 CC FC 0 (84)
    19 Axel’s cloggs 0 (83)
    20 Inter Yasista 0 (79)

    Luckiest team so far is Born Winners, who are fourth on the table but with the fourth worst game point tally. Unluckiest team goes to Balotellitubbies, lying 12th in the league but with the 5th best game point tally.

    That’s life in the big league.

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  9. Aussie we met in the star fish Inn on Westgate road and spent a few squid. Cuttle edge humour at its best! 😳

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  10. Oz @ 613. Did well. Gave some nonentities called Aussie Mags a 4 points start, wasted a joker and still beat them at a canter.

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  11. Good run out for Southampton North London (Ox, Chambers, Wolcott) against Southampton Northwest (Clyne, Lovren, Lallana) on Monday. These training games shouldn’t really be on TV though.

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  12. Probably right Stuart. Mac even said it’s numbers 11-23 who are the most important in the squad. Probably see Aarons, De Jong, Tiote, Lascelles and hopefully Willos swansong. Hope it’s Cisse’s too.

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  13. It is ok against Northampton. The big test of the clubs new cup policy will be if we draw a PL club.

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  14. I think they’ll go for it Stuart and name a full strength side (ever optimistic they’ll do what they say!)
    We should be able to play our 11 unwanted donkeys and still win.

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  15. What Bris, no shout out for the week 3 and league leading points scored leader? I think that terrific squad deserves recognition 😉

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  16. Didn’t we play a ‘weaker’ 11 against Man City in the cup last year and beat them 2-0?.
    I think we should give some game time to players who either have had very little or none so far. Bring the likes of Lascelles, Tiote, Aarons, De Jong into the side.

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  17. AUSSIE MAGPIE FAN 604
    guess you did not notice how many times he gave the ball away trying to hoof it 2nd half he aint a right back

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  18. I would like to see a fairly strong team tonight, we are either going for the cups or not. All this talk of tiredness is ridiculous this early in the season, god help em by Christmas.

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  19. If he has to play some fringe guys then he must field a strong bench so we can bring on the cavalry if it starts going tits up.

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  20. is this being shown anywhere later, or are we going to have to put up with a crappy radio stream as usual?

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  21. Newkie, there’s a few sites saying they will show it but will need to check it out nearer to KO.

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  22. Kim, figured as much, stupid radio coverage and 20 secs of highlights if we’re lucky! 😥

    Want to see a strong team. I’d play janmaat too, I wouldn’t say playing against Northampton is exactly a reward. Want a strong side, mbemba and tayls to partner colo for a half each, dummet or Haidas full back. Tiote, siem and gini, Perez mitro arrons for me.

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  23. I get the whole “punishment” thing for Jan, but I think Aussie is taking it a bit far. His wife tells me he’s a fan of that kind of thing, so it doesn’t come as a surprise.

    The way I see it, Colo, Taylor and Williamson alone have done far more stupid things in the past, and have walked right back into the team. How many games suspension did Cisse serve last season, and people couldn’t wait to get him back in. I do think jan was stupid, but I’m also certain he isn’t match sharp or fit. Sitting him out a further four games will not help that. In saying that, I want to see how he performs tonight, because if he’s **** then mbemba should take his pl place on merit ~ which is fine by me!

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  24. Newcastle: Darlow, Janmaat, Lascelles, Williamson, Haidara, Tiote, Gouffran, Aarons, de Jong, Thauvin, Perez

    Subs: Elliot, Dummett, Mbemba, Colback, Wijnaldum, Toney, Mitrovic

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  25. Evening all.
    Very rare chance for me to watch a midweek game and can’t find a stream.
    Bleeding typical that.

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  26. Bloody Willo he’s like a bad smell just won’t go away this is about his standard like,just seeing his name on a black/white top annoys me

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  27. No Colo or Taylor.
    Suggests to me they’ll be starting against Arsenal after last w ends performance.
    Mbemba to retain RB or Janmaat back in?
    Interesting, I’ve been hugely impressed with Mbemba overall, despite how well Colo and Tayls have been perceived, I still think Mbemba is easily our best CB, especially considering he’s only a few games into his Prem career.

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  28. Newkie:
    I just imagined they’d be cracking open the bonfire stories of Hereford Utd before kick off and then sweating profusely for 90 mins at the prospect of being able to revel in our demise yet again.

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  29. Sorry guys and gals. Tried to get a new thread up earlier but I got bogged down with work stuff 🙁

    Not hopeful but any links?

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  30. I must say, the team sheet is not what I’d have expected from a manager who stated he’d put out his strongest possible team.
    I’d say it’s not any stronger than any team Pards ever put out.
    At least we have potential winning options from the bench.

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  31. “We will put our strongest possible team out, taking into account what happened on Saturday, taking into account the game this weekend and taking into account that we have a very good squad.”

    Nice cop out there Schteve! Would have preferred a side with some more quality in it, but there are lads out there getting game time I am happy about. Perez up top alone should be interesting. Just hope that means he isn’t dropped for Arsenal, he was our only capable outlet for most of the match against Manure. Arsenal will destroy us if we give them as much run of the midfield as we gave them.

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  32. Seems like Perez is getting fouled a lot – assuming Thauvin has decent deliveries, there may well be a point to us getting set pieces again 😛

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  33. AUSSIE MAGPIE FAN
    still think we should drop janmatt over there 😯 😆 😆 😆 😆

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