After a much needed win over West Ham, a disappointing deadline day followed by the dreaded international break has seen us lose a little bit of momentum, but tomorrow’s trip to Swansea is now upon us, giving Benitez and the boys the perfect chance to put some much needed smiles back on the faces of the fans.
We may, however, be up against it without even kicking a ball, with it looking increasingly likely that Benitez will be forced to sit out the game, having failed to recover in time from an operation earlier in the week.
Benitez is a ‘busy’ manager, often directing his teams from the sidelines. It’s undeniable that his presence and tactical nous would be a big miss, but the players – who look set to be lead by Rafa’s trusted right hand man, Paco Moreno – will be ready to put in a performance on the back of our opening win of the season over West Ham.
Swansea, like us, are coming off the back of their first league win of the season, however Paul Clement’s side, unlike us, have a spring in their step from signings made since then. It’s a big game for us. Losing could be another unwanted reminder of how Ashley’s lack of investment will cost us. A win, however, would install some much needed positivity around the club, showing we can compete with our Premier League rivals on the pitch, despite enduring a summer that suggested we couldn’t off of it.
Hopefully Merino can put in another calm and composed performance, whilst Hayden’s combative style could be key in the potential midfield battle involving a certain Renato Sanches.
Atsu and Ritchie’s effectiveness on the counter will be vital to our threat going forward, but hopefully the pair can continue where they left off after lively performances against West Ham.
Given our tendency to sit deep and look to hit teams on the counter (especially away from home), there will also be a big emphasis on Joselu (who I expect to start) to hold up the ball and bring others into play when we instigate attacks. He did that very well against West Ham so here’s hoping for more of the same tomorrow.
The Opposition
Their capture of Portuguese sensation Renato Sanches is an incredible coup for the club, whilst the return of former marksman Wilfred Bony will have the fans in good spirits. Both are expected to be involved.
Tammy Abraham – who, at one stage, looked all set to join us over the summer – got off the mark for Swansea in their win at Palace last time out. He’s believed to have been quietly impressive during his brief time with them and will be one to keep an eye on.
Click here for a closer look into tomorrow’s opposition, as we’ve been speaking to Swansea fan Seab who gave us his thoughts on NUFC and some insight into his team’s season so far.
Form
Swansea (13th) – Played: 3 / Won: 1 / Drawn: 1 / Lost: 1
Newcastle (14th) – Played: 3 / Won: 1 / Drawn: 0 / Lost: 2
Team News
We look to be heading into this one in decent shape, with Florian Lejeune, DeAndre Yedlin and Dwight Gayle all in contention after missing out through injury.
Jonjo Shelvey is back from his ban, however Aleksandar Mitrovic will sit out the first of his 3-game suspension. Chancel Mbemba will miss out after suffering an injury on international duty.
For Swansea, new boy Renato Sanches looks set to make his debut, whilst fellow Deadline Day signing Wilfried Bony is also expected to be feature.
Jordan Ayew – who starred in their 2-0 win at Palace – has won his fitness race, but Kyle Bartley, Nathan Dyer and Ki Sung-yueng will be missing for the Swans.
Predicted Line-ups
Newcastle United XI – (4-2-3-1) – Elliot – Manquillo, Lascelles, Lejeune, Clark – Hayden, Merino – Ritchie, Perez , Atsu – Joselu
Swansea City XI – (3-5-2) – Fabianski; van der Hoorn, Mawson, Fernandez; Naughton, Clucas, Carroll, Sanches, Olsson; Ayew, Abraham
Head-to-Heads
Match Prediction
I expect a good atmosphere and them to play at a good tempo. We’ll have to be resolute and far more effective going forward than we were in our last away day at Huddersfield.
In Bony and Abraham they carry pretty potent threat up top. Starving them of service and stopping the likes of Renato Sanches could be key.
A repeat of the Huddersfield performance and I expect the outcome to be the same, but replicate the sort of energy and enthusiasm we showed against West Ham and i’m confident we’ll get a result.
Prediction: Swansea 1-1 Newcastle
Howay the lads!
Dive apart, Merino is just so comfortable on the ball. A typical Spaniard. I’d play him further up the pitch me.
Stuart79(Quote)
Perez is not doing well. Gamez is. Impressed by him today.
shamrock(Quote)
great save Rob
KIMTOON(Quote)
Canny play from Swansea to be fair.
Stuart79(Quote)
Perez get off the pitch mate.
shamrock(Quote)
Ffs Perez!
Stuart79(Quote)
Good sub..murphy disappeared this half. Just need perez off now.
shamrock(Quote)
Atsu on. Give us more pace on the break. Reasonable from Murphy on his PL debut.
Stuart79(Quote)
Atsu for Murphy, good move
Murphy needs to put a bit of weight on looks a little light
KIMTOON(Quote)
Jamaal well done son.
shamrock(Quote)
well done Lascelles
KIMTOON(Quote)
Brilliant from Lascelles. We need to get some control here as they’re starting to apply the pressure.
Stuart79(Quote)
Get Shelvey on. He’ll put one in the top corner from 25 yards!
Stuart79(Quote)
Merino looks good mind
KIMTOON(Quote)
Bony coming on, bound to score on his return
KIMTOON(Quote)
Ayew is getting on my tits, he’s bloody everywhere
KIMTOON(Quote)
Diame about to come on???
Stuart79(Quote)
I still don’t get why the Swans fans don’t sing:
“He’s crazy like a fool, Daddy, Daddy cool”.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Hayden off
KIMTOON(Quote)
Oh Perez! We’ve had the best chances. This is likely to be the story of our season. We don’t have too much quality in the final third.
Stuart79(Quote)
Well that’s two game saving saves from Fabianski now 👿
KIMTOON(Quote)
powder puff shot from Joselu
KIMTOON(Quote)
Get in!
Stuart79(Quote)
Getinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Lascelles
KIMTOON(Quote)
Im taking credit for it as I decided to watch the corner in the kitchen instead of the living room… 🙂
Stuart79(Quote)
Anyone still think Lascelles isnt up to it?
shamrock(Quote)
😆 😆 😆
funrafa(Quote)
Now then. Can we keep hold of this lead and hit them on the break for Gayle to bag the second…
Stuart79(Quote)
Who assisted the goal?
shamrock(Quote)
Ritchie from corner I believe
Premandup(Quote)
top 10 as it stands
Premandup(Quote)
Me Sham. 😮 😀 Ritchie played a little part too.
Stuart79(Quote)
Oh ffs , yellow to Gayle for stopping a quick free kick
KIMTOON(Quote)
We won a few like this in th Fizzy. We need to concentrate and keep the ball.
Stuart79(Quote)
Well the pundits can insist Swansea are better but we have made 16 attempts to their 9
KIMTOON(Quote)
make that 10, well saved Rob
lets see how much added time there is
KIMTOON(Quote)
5mins wtf
KIMTOON(Quote)
Is it me or is Perez wearing lead boots?
Stuart79(Quote)
Manquillo ****, why
KIMTOON(Quote)
Ffs Atsu twice!
Stuart79(Quote)
Robs done well today
KIMTOON(Quote)
Top ten. Season end now!
Stuart79(Quote)
And that’s that 🙂
Sanches who ?
Tammy who ?
How’s that for you Merson & co ?
KIMTOON(Quote)
Well done Merson, Lawro and just about every other ‘expert’ pundit. You really know your football.
shamrock(Quote)
I didn’t want to jinx it but…
Elliot back to normal
Please let Palace and West Ham be the bottom 2 with no points.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Btw, why hasn’t Gamez played more?
Stuart79(Quote)
Get well boost for Rafa
If Swans have a **** season, I would like us to go for Ayew, guy runs on ever readies
KIMTOON(Quote)
Originally Injured and not fit, not sure why since
KIMTOON(Quote)
Well chuffed with that display. Lascelles MoTM for me today… a true captains performance today. Perez poor today but Gamez was excellent at LB. Merino very impressive today apart from that horrible dive.
Also very happy with Rob in goal. He’s my fantasy football goalie so chuffed on that part too. More the Elliot of old…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Also happy to Lascelles doing the interview. So different from our last captain.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Renato who? Wilfried who?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Monkeys heed thinks Ritchie should’ve been red carded… he is such a ****.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
We just won the game, and all these ******* can talk about is that Ritchie should’ve gone … and now it’s about Mane’s tackle that saw red… if we ever won the champions league, (lol, lol, lol) the journos would still find something to criticise us for…
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Oh Please. It will make me so happy. Zero points and zero goals. Please.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
He didn’t make any contact.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Yes I know.. completely different to Mane who almost took the goalies head off.. Mawson just spun out the way and no issue. Yellow was right for dangerous play but nothing more.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
DT: it is always the same mate. Stevie G or Frank Lampard could pull out a gun and shoot a player on the pitch and Peytar and Merse would say, “just a yellow, for me”. Any NUFC player gives a Liverpool player a dirty look and Lawro wants him sent off.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t think I am being paranoid. I KNOW the UK based pundits are biased against NUFC. It is not the same here in the USA. Probably because they do not employ a cabal of ex-Liverpool, Arsenal and ManU. Plus the Monkey’s Heed, and it is obvious why he has a grudge.
Does anybody have that picture with monkeys in mackem jerseys?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I really like the work ethic and organisation of this squad. Bringing on Diame was a strange decision as the guy is unfit and doesn’t fit with that team game plan or work ethic, I would get rid as soon as possible and cut the losses. Swansea just looked like they thought they would turn up and beat us, some of their fans said they would put 4 or 5 past us on their message boards. 😛 The top 7 will just turn up and beat us this season, I’m sure, but Swansea are not in that echelon. Maybe today will be a reality check for them? We just worked harder than them and scored a championship style header from a corner. I didn’t want to jinx it at half time, I was going to say a point would be good but I always thought that we could sneak one and take all three points home, as was the case. I’m chuffed with that, let’s hope some teams like Bournemouth, West Ham and Palace are complacent and get sucked into the vortex. The three promoted teams are fighting for survival, like all of the bottom 10 need to if they want to stay up!
DJG(Quote)
Also, Renato Sanches and Tammy Abraham. Did I miss something? I didn’t think they were anything special at all. 😀
DJG(Quote)
DJG: who are the top 7 now? Everton have replaced 25 goals with a potato. I will be shocked if they finish top half.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sorry, Everton have bought a horny potato who picks up strange looking women when his wife is on one of her 10 holidays.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And wouldn’t you go on holiday 10+ times a year if you had to sleep with Wayne the rest of the year? These are the real questions that should be asked!!! She probably gets pregnant just for the relief.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We lost our first 2 games last year and finished as Champions. Another Leicester 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
NEW THREAD!
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2017/09/10/swansea-0-1-newcastle-captain-fantastic-rallies-a-rafa-less-nufc-to-a-precious-three-points/
Post match report! GET IN! Great win.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
I said a while back that I see Lascelles in the England set up & I stand by that. But it would be easy to give him all the credit today – I think Clark was equally solid alongside him. That lad just goes about his business so calmly and his positioning is generally excellent.
Ritchie never stopped again, but I think Perez was bang average & Murphy struggled in the first half – Atsu looked far more effective down that wing.
I’m not going to mention about Bony, Sanches and Abrahams because it’s early days for Swansea.
I’m only arsed about Newcastle and how we get on, and with Lejeune, Gayle, Shelvey and Mitro all still to get going, it’s not looking too bad.
My biggest issue today was Diame. That lad looks like a total carthorse and completely out his depth in the PL. I hate to say it, but I’d rather Colback or Saivet ahead of him – that’s saying something!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)