Welcome one and all to the fantabulous, majestic ‘Game on’ article which will take you through every twist and turn of the match against Swansea today.
Of course today gives us another chance to pay our respects to Gary Speed as the memorial planned originally for the Chelsea game will go ahead with Gary Speed’s wife, Louise, in attendance at St James’ Park. Welsh hymn ‘Bread of Heaven’ will be sung and black and white cards depicting the number 11 will be held aloft by fans in the East Stand. It’s also fitting that the visitors today are from Speed’s homeland of Wales and I’m sure both sets of fans will combine to make it a fitting tribute to the man.
Moving on to the match itself… Team news will be supplied at the bottom of this article as and when it becomes available. However in the meantime why not take a look at Shamrock’s most excellent match preview here or for a look at a compendium of stats with regard to Swansea courtesy of nufc_stats then why not look here.
That just about sums it up from me and it really is ‘Game on’ time. Newcastle will be looking to pick up their first win in four whilst Swansea will be looking for their first away win of the season (I hate stats like that!) and with both sides capable of producing good football we could be in for a pre-Christmas cracker at St James’ Park.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, James Perch, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Davide Santon; Gabriel Obertan, Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez; Leon Best, Demba Ba.
Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, Mehdi Abeid, Haris Vuckic, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi
Swansea: Vorm, Richards, Williams, Caulker, Taylor, Routledge, Gower, Britton, Sinclair, Allen, Graham
Subs: Tremmel, Monk, Dyer, Augustien, Lita, Dobbie, Moore
More realistically either Remy or Hoarau would be decent. Hoarau isn’t getting much play time at PSG now since Gameiro’s signing, he’s still young and has international experience under his belt. Not sure if he’d pass a medical though… I think he got injured pretty bad backin September or something?
@JamieVincente(Quote)
@221 – this is how Pardew runs the team – on merit. You play well, you get another chance in the next game – whether as a sub or replacing an injured/suspended player in the starting lineup. Best played well = Best stays in the team
M(Quote)
If Ben Arfa doesn’t play, thats for a reason, Im sure he had a clash with Alan Pardew, you cannot drop him after his 2 good performances against city and united.
Blackbartoon(Quote)
@M
I follow this player since he was 17 years old. So its not only reputation, but i know that this guy is 10 times better than all the players who play for him. Against Chelsea he receives 10 ball in the first half because guys prefer put long ball in the box. I agree with you if you wanna be a team like stoke city and just put long ball in the box, this guy is useless. But when this guy plays all the players must give him the ball. But i think other players are a little bit jalous and are not ready to play for Benny. Defensively he is really bad but i think Newcastle game is so predictable maybe Pardew must focus a little bit more offensively.
HBA39(Quote)
No offence M @227 but do you really think Best played well today mate? I didn’t see that much from him. Ba provided almost all of the attack. I understand the idea of merit but I do think Pardew has favourites that haven’t really played that well. I just think we are definitely losing momentum now and something will have to change in the attack. Jonas is all too predictable going forward as is Obertan. Putting Vuckic in is clearly sending a message to Ben Arfa, I’m just not sure what the message is? It looks an awful lot like complete disrespect to me which is strange as I have heard glowing comments from Pardew about Ben Arfa. Again the trend in the last few games is becoming a bit alarming and we need a very good performance against West Brom, however Pardew manages it. 😉
GeordieTwo(Quote)
At one point all Pardew talked about was how to work Ben Arfa into the team, how he is a classic number 10, how he has to play in the hole behind Ba. Now we never even see Ben Arfa for a few minutes. Why no Ben Arfa against Norwich when we were down 4-2? Instead bring in Smith, what a joke!!! This definitely looks like Ben Arfa is being punished for something said or done. Is this good for the team? I have my doubts. Settle it with Ben Arfa Pardew, then get him into the lineup or lose him.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Any real stat-hounds out there who can crunch the numbers on how our attack does with & without Best? My sense is we’re much more dangerous with him in the team, but would be curious to see if that’s borne out in #s.
First half today, it looked like we would tear them apart and that was largely due to the Best/Ba combo, I thought.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
To be fair to Obertan when he made that run from the excellent cross, there was absolutely no-one in the middle apart from Ba just getting there and Best miles away. I thought he did well to win a corner. It’s no good crossing it if theres no-one there.
DJG(Quote)
Benny plays rubbish behind 1 striker. The opposition defence has time to spare as Obertan is useless product wise. We need to play Benny behind 2 strikers. He would roam free then and cause havoc whilst the defence is busy trying to keep up with Ba and Best. That would mean Tiote holding, Cabaye moving to the right (he can cross and come back inside when needed), whilst Obertan settles into life on the bench. – Problem solved a mon avis. 💡 😉
Shamrock(Quote)
@225, Newkie
I’m a big fan of Ben arfa, but i think the right time to start it was against Man-City, until Man-city he was out of form because his ankle injury during Kansas city and obviously one year without playing. So I’m a big fan but I’m objective and Pardew manage him really good until Man-city. and In some part I agree with you in first games Jonas has played really well, much more better than last year. But one thing i don’t understand and maybe you can explain to me. When Ben Arfa starts coming from the bench in the first games, he was really bad, he looses a lot of balls (Blackburn, Totthenham, Blakburn cup), because was out of fitness but Pardew continues to make him playing and give him a start against City. And when he seems to have a good form, he looks sharper every game, he drops it and gives him no minutes in the last 2 games, even if Obertan and Jonas or even Ameobi and Best was really bad. Because if i admit than in the first games Jonas was really good, and even Obertan, you need to admit than in the last games Jonas and Obertan were really very very poor.
And just one question for you? when you speak about the quality of your wingers, we say always they are very good defensively, they help a lot in defense, its ok but i think can you tell me a little bit about the offensive skills and performance of your wingers? for me if you wanna become again one of the biggest team in Premier League you need to have wingers who are stronger offensively than defensively. In my opinion even Santon looks better with the ball than Jonas, its your opinion to? After if you wanna stay around the 8 and 12 place, Obertan and Jonas are perfect wingers. At least our winger need to know how to dribble an opponent.
HBA39(Quote)
GeordieTwo
December 17, 2011 at 18:28
No offence M @227 but do you really think Best played well today mate? I didn’t see that much from him. Ba provided almost all of the attack. I understand the idea of merit but I do think Pardew has favourites that haven’t really played that well
I agree with you. Pardew is starting to show he has favourites which is a very dangerous thing in football. He needs to take a step back after today and review the last 5-6 games because I do believe he has the players and skills to get through this but he has made some poor/average decisions over the last month which isn’t like him at all.
DJG(Quote)
Obertan is taking a lot of abuse. But Jonas was and has been just as **** the past few weeks, but not a word is said about him.
The reason Obertan doesn’t look too great is because Simspon offers him no support going forward…
JJ(Quote)
I think Best was very good in the 1st half too. Lots of knock downs and linking play with Ba. He faded 2nd half. Would have liked to have seen Ben Arfa for him instead of Shola.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
HBA39-Yeah I agree with you in saying our wingers may not help enough offensively, all I was saying was that Jonas had been brilliant and deserved his place in the team. I’d also disagree with you, I don’t think he was poor vs Norwich or today at Swansea, he’s just getting used to a new partner at left back and it will take some time for both of them to understand each others games.
I do however agree with you that Arfa should be played ahead of Obertan on the right from now on, as I think we need more help offensively on that side. It will mean Tiote might have to drift to the right more often to help out simmo but that’s fine with me. Or, as many have said, he should be played next week in place of Cabaye behind two strikers with Tiote holding. I think he has the quality to play for the first team/be used as a sub-as I’ve said I’m not sure why he’s not getting any games and all I can imagine is that he’s had a disagreement with Pards.
Newkie(Quote)
JJ-I have to disagree with you there, Simmo put in some decent crosses today, more than Obertan that’s for sure 😕 Agree that Jonas might start taking flak now though because his defensive abilities may no longer be seen as needed….
Newkie(Quote)
JJ
Jonas actually got forward more today. The reason was Santon getting up with him. People said, ‘Raylor only looks okay because Jonas is there with him all the time’. If you ask me the truth is Jonas needs support or he runs out of road, he gets that from Santon like Enrique used to. With Raylor he rairly got past the halfway line.
DJG(Quote)
We will go on the slide if we perform like that more often.
Poor game. Poor result. Stoke 3 pts behind us now!
No excuses. No good enough. 😯
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I am well pleased with Santon though, the lad looks class. Another puzzling decision, why has he not been played before now? These decisions are adding up. 😕
DJG(Quote)
@DJG
I agree with you. Santo looks really class in the last 2 games, Why Pardew waited that Rtaylor cost us 9 points to drop him? I think Santon is far better than him..? Strange decision..
HBA39(Quote)
SHAMROCK Rubbish?? Really??
Blackbartoon(Quote)
HBA39
Certainly against Chelsea when Sturridge had the freedom of SJP. Have to think Santon would have done a better job on him!
DJG(Quote)
DJG
Yeah this game Cech has just to close his eyes and threw a long ball in our left and Sturridge was alone in front of Krul with only Colo trying to stop him.
HBA39(Quote)
I’ve been one on Raylor’s back for a fair while now but I think Pards just didn’t want to rush Santon in for a number of reasons…New team, new language, tough opposition to start against and Raylor had been pretty decent, it did take some top class teams to expose him.
Still I’m hoping Santon has that no.1 nailed down now.
Newkie(Quote)
so would nobody take S Kalou from Chelsea as part of an exchange??
25ish, plenty of Prem experience + at the end of his contract. got a game 2day v Wigan.
Was mentioned in the Chron as possible deal to be done, anyone?
mark(Quote)
kinel – doesn’t take much to start fans on here to start slagging the team – until 4 games ago we had the best defence in the league and it included taylor, you can hardly blame pards for continuing to pick him – we now have far from the best defence and santons in, rayls will find it hard to get back in
thought obertan had a decent game today,
cabayes corners / freekicks were a bit hit and miss today
stevep(Quote)
@mark – he won’t come, he’s on 65k a week by all accounts and no way fatty would match that, same goes for Alex and co
they’re too old and too expensive
stevep(Quote)
more likely that chelsea are after Krul – Cech had a complete shocker today, he’s getting embarrassing too watch
stevep(Quote)
HBA 39 Youre **** right! We need to change our style of play and stop dropping the ball into the box all time, Jonas is indispensable defensivly so we need another men instead of obertan to add something more offensively. We need to buy a right winger, put obertan into bench or reserves and put ben arfa behind demba ba because this guy has something special, Im from senegal and I live in France, I know Hba very well since 2005! This lad can be fu***** amazing if we give him a chance! Our starting 11 have to be:
Krul
Santon New CB or Saylor Colo Taiwo
New RW(Barnetta? Hoilett, but not Obertan) Cabaye Tioté Jonas
Ben Arfa
Demba Ba
Blackbartoon(Quote)
some people say pardew have strange players rating ( tevez/ masherano in the past)
but for my point of view, jonas is really **** on this match what do you think?
he is the brandao of argentina, lol, going forward hi style is horrific..
and if best played well, i don’t understand too…average, not particulary well…
toondra(Quote)
cheers @stevep
didnt realise he earned 65k
mark(Quote)
Lets get things into perspective we have had a blip over the last few weeks injuries have`nt helped our cause. However, if you had offered me the season that we have had so far I`d have been well pleased. Think about the close season and the problems we had, well done lads for your efforts so far and on the whole I`ve enjoyed the football home and away
Freddie Shepherd(Quote)
stevep
December 17, 2011 at 19:41
more likely that chelsea are after Krul – Cech had a complete shocker today, he’s getting embarrassing too watch
I hope not, same go’s for Fergie and De Gea. Makes depressing reading our transfer news rather than optimistic like it should be. At least if we start to slide Mike Ashley might reconsider selling all our assets.
DJG(Quote)
@Moreno @136: You are right 2 points from 15 is awful no matter who we are up against. What concerned me is that these are are bread and butter games We need to put the fat on for the winter when ba goes to a the cup of nations.
We are in a deep slump. Beaten 4-2 by Norwich away and now draw @ home against Swansea???? This is back to our old ways. God these are awful results. We play Liverpool and united successively pragmatically we would chalk those off as defeats what of Tottenham, city, Arsenal, Chelsea. Not looking good.
Michael12(Quote)
Just see the post match interview and Pardew is really pleased with the draw, and tryint to tell us that Swansea is mid-table squad with a lot of quality? I think pardew has take drugs or what. If you dont win at home against swansea who has take only 2 points away, you just deserve to be 10 or 12 in the table..
HBA39(Quote)
hang on there michael12,we played the top 3 teams in this country(and come away with 1 point out of 9 ),norwich we wouldnt have lost if colo or taylor were playing,and today you get games like that there keeper had a fkin blinder..chin up lad
hitman(Quote)
Yeah, we drew with Manure, lost to an awesome City side and lost to a Chelsea side who only last week beat that same City side…we lost to Norwich due to a massive injury crisis and Swansea was just one of those games imo. People need to chill the **** out. One point isn’t ideal but these things happen.On to next week and hopefully a better result.
Newkie(Quote)
sorry like, but how good is Demba Ba!?!
Clearly the best striker we’ve had in a long time
I Love Mike(Quote)
Fair assessment here?
*City–loss, no surprise.
*ManU–lucky to pull the point but wouldn’t have been surprised with a loss
*Chelsea–an unlucky loss with the Luiz decision and a bank of injuries
*Norwich–probably inevitable result of injury crisis
*Swansea–recovering our bearings with three starters returning to the fold, hit the post twice, unlucky not to win
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Ilovemike, Demba Ba is excellent I’m more worried about him going to africa than anyone going out/anyone coming in in January
Billy Bullsh!t(Quote)
Newcastle played some good football today. Everyone put in lots of effort except perhaps Shola. How come after 70 mins Ba could still put in more effort than Shola with fresh legs. Ba has terrific feet and he would do better with passes on the ground. Ben Arfa might have provided those passes. As Toonsy has said it was just one of those games.
groucho(Quote)
pardew has said hatem will be frustrated about not getting a game again but that will fuel him for wed night!!! hmmmm does that mean hatem starts on wed night ?? HOPE SO
Army69(Quote)
Can’t believe people on here suggesting Pardew plays his favourite players and leaves better players on the bench.
Pardew will give game time to Shola whenever he is fit to play and no matter how poorly he plays. Will probably apply to Raylor as well.
For those concerned why Santon was not previously played and Ben Arfa being snubbed , I would refer you to Mascherino and Tevez who sat on the bench at West Ham wondering if Pardew would give them a chance.
sidekick(Quote)
Funny, I never saw people complain after Shola came on, for Ba I believe, to score a great goal against Spurs and draw us the match…. 😕
Army-lets hope so
Newkie(Quote)
army,pards needs to box with kids gloves when it comes to benny,the lad has a short fuse and if he thinks he wont get a chance here he will put in for a move.
hitman(Quote)
‘Swansea–recovering our bearings with three starters returning to the fold, hit the post twice, unlucky not to win’
I thought it was one of those games where Swansea would sneek one at the end, we definately didn’t do enough, it was poor. People need to face the facts and stop making excuses for a poor performance. Okay we’ve had a hard run of games but today was winnable, we didn’t do enough today.
DJG(Quote)
hitman
December 17, 2011 at 21:14
army,pards needs to box with kids gloves when it comes to benny,the lad has a short fuse and if he thinks he wont get a chance here he will put in for a move.
Just coz he did that at OM to probably double his wage and increase his exposure dosen’t mean he will here. Where’s he gonna go next?
DJG(Quote)
oops there goes reality…
😆 😆 😆
hitman(Quote)
Benny scored a wonder goal at Everton,hope he come good but he is not Beardo yet, today i thought there was not enough hours in the day for us to win. Why do we boo and criticise during the game, i felt behind me today that the local school had rewarded the numpties for turning up , if the team are ***** we criticize but support them it is what we are ,but we support those in the shirt it is our job .RIP SPEEDO AND BOWBURN WISH WE HAD GOT THE WIN YOU DESERVED.
Tommy Gibb(Quote)
so remind us again why benny will put in for a move?
DJG(Quote)
if we get into europe under ashley it will be great
hitman(Quote)
DJG.do you fkin have alzheimers,benny went on strike coz he wasnt getting played at marseille.
hitman(Quote)
Nowt like West Brom for a disappointing underwhelming result either, our recent record against them is terrible. I would rather we were playing the derby, at least the players would be up for it.
DJG(Quote)
So whats your point? We should play him to keep him happy?
DJG(Quote)
pardew said benny will be frustrated but it wud fuel him for wed night!! u rekn that means hes playing wed?? i hope so cos im going 😀
Army69(Quote)
Maiga went on strike as well, it’s a french thing, they strike at least once a week don’t worry ’bout it.
DJG(Quote)
🙄 neet lads
hitman(Quote)
Sammy and Vuckic coming on nearly made me sick. Sammy has proven next to nothing in my opinion these last few weeks – off the bench.
Neither are dangerous going forward and either miss the opportunity to pass early or lose the ball altogether. Is Pard’s waiting for a magical new position to be invented on the football pitch that will suit HBA? All this talk of his sensitivity and preference to where he plays on the park is irritating. With 20 minutes remaining against a team who is standing off defensively play him in CM, CAM, RM or FW – if he is out of his preferred (possibly “fictional”) playing position he is still far more likely to inspire an attack than anyone else.
Additionally I have nothing but the utmost respect for the box-to-box work of Cabaye but he will be far more effective if he breaks away from the pack of NUFC players who can’t clear the first man on crosses. Especially on set pieces.
Shame last night, still on we go.
HTL from Australia.
AUSSIE TOON(Quote)
DJG
December 17, 2011 at 23:20
Maiga went on strike as well, it’s a french thing, they strike at least once a week don’t worry ’bout it.
So true
Still, if all our frenchies strike on match day doesn’t that leave us up **** creek? 😛
Newkie(Quote)
Thought we were unlucky not to win. Game should have been over by the end of the first half. Demba Ba is magic, and probably the closest we have come to filling part of the void left by Alan Shearer. The lad is all class. Best pick up of the season.
The 3 most important players to the team would have to be Colo Tiote and Ba. We looked so assured, especially in the first half and was thinking to myself playing like that we deserved to be challenging for top 4.
I do think we lack something on the wings though. I love Jonas, gives his all and doesn’t stop working. But your wings are supposed to be the creative line of the team. Our wide men (Jonas and Obertan) don’t offer enough threat going forward. Obertan is just a hack. I hate watching the guy play. If a Nani or Mata or Bale had that much of the ball as he did in the first half, the game would be dead and buried. I believe we need to get some wide men in January. I liked the look of Marvaux before he got injured. When he came on, he always looked like providing service for the front players.
I was surprised as most of you not to see HBA play. Thought it would have been a perfect match for him to be involved in. He would have got time on the ball with all the possession we had. I would probably have tried him in Obertans position if anything. Yes he probably wont go outside his opponent and get crosses in, but I’m sure he would have cut in from the right and provide us with something different. Would have liked to see Pards be a bit more adventurous. It was definitely 2 points dropped.
But all in all, was good to see Colo and Tiote back. They made the team look so much more solid and assured. We look forward to our next game!
dansportzblog(Quote)
Well it was a frustrating day and full credit goes to Swansea who were very well organised and disciplined, it’s easy to see now why Swansea have one of the meanest defences in the league. From our point of view, plenty of effort but couldn’t get the vital goal that surely would have won us the game. A point is better than none and it was good to keep a clean sheet after conceding far too many in our last 2 games. Was nice to see captain Colo back who had another good game, Perch also looked so much more assured and calm playing alongside our regular captain. Santon was very good on his home debut and got forward on numerous occasions. It was great to see Tiote and Best back in the team but understandably, they both looked a bit rusty and will hopefully back to their best against WBA. Ba was class today and was unlucky not to score. It’s a huge shame that Cabaye will miss the next time but it’s an opportunity for one of the younger players to stake a claim in the team, I’d like to see Vuckic or Abeid given a run out. I was quite surprised that HBA wasn’t subbed on, lets hope that he comes good sooner rather than later. On the whole, pleased with the effort and committment but we need to win against the baggies!
Mihesh(Quote)
could of bin alot worse today. We dominated the game but cudnt score. Obertan gets no support attackin frm simmo but crossed need to be beta if wer playin 2 big lads up top.
alex(Quote)
Simmo put in several good crosses today, more dangerous than Obertan’s anyway 😕 Meh.
Newkie(Quote)
obertan and gutis deliveries wer poor, oba needs to get them in quicker. Not faulting simpson but wen u see santon constantly bombing forward, does simpson offer that? His crossing is improving just wish hed get forward more then at least it wud giv oba more space just my opinion mind.
alex(Quote)
toonsy have you ever managed pro football? or just fictional blog sites and fantasy fooy?
john(Quote)
Not managed no. Used to play it though at a pretty high level.
toonsy(Quote)
Very happy with the game. Toon played entertaining football and we looked good for 3 points for a long period. The only problem was the posts and the goalie made one or two excellent saves.
Particularly happy at how much better Perch looked today and also there appears to be an understanding with Santon and Jonas developing which is lending the side some balance.
I was happy with Sammy and Vukic subs. I suspect Cabaye’s yellow is the reason why Vukic was subbed in. May start next match and needs a run out. Sammy for Obertan was needed as well. Especially if Ben Arfa wont/can’t play wing. I thought Obertan looked better today but I can see why people are frustrated by him. He still should have more time though as we have seen so often that some players take time to bed in. Shola may have earned his time after doing a good job last week. Shame he didn’t look as effective today. I also think Pardew thought about this match together with Wednesday’s match due to the short turn around. So Ben Arfa will be playing on Wednesday..
griff(Quote)