What has become the traditional Boxing Day travel for fans of NUFC will see us visit Old Trafford this time for our ninth Boxing Day away league game in the last ten seasons.
It’s not the best fixture in truth as our record at Old Trafford is shocking and the strength of Manchester United is something that pretty much everyone knows about, but all we can do is try our best and hope.
We’ve been on the end of some real hammerings from Alex Ferguson’s side over the years and we’ve failed to beat them away from home in more than my lifetime. It is quite simply a “write off” as far as I’m concerned and if we can sneak a point then I’d be over the moon. With the relative form of both sides though I can, unfortunately, only see one outcome though.
Manchester United:
Alex Ferguson is reportedly ready to make some changes after failing to beat Swansea on Saturday. Robin van Persie should be fine to play after his near-death experience at the Liberty Stadium. Sir Alex is reportedly asking for footballs to be banned from football matches as a safety precaution.
Joking aside, Rafael will undergo a fitness test after missing the match against Swansea with a hamstring injury while Anderson and Nani are doubtful with the same complaint. Shinji Kagawa is back in training following a knee injury.
Newcastle United:
No new regarding injuries. Steven Taylor, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic and Dan Gosling are all missing through various injuries whilst Cheik Tiote will miss this one as he serves a one match suspension for picking up his fifth booking of the season against QPR on Saturday.
Previously…
Well where do I start? It’s been over 40 years since we won a game at Old Trafford (2-0 back in February 1972) and we’ve only won nine games at the home of Manchester United in the entire 118 year history of meetings between the two sides. Manchester United have won 47 times on home turf with 20 draws making up the 76 games contested between the two clubs in Manchester.
Overall there have been 156 matches between the two sides in all competitions over the years. Manchester United have won 79 of them, Newcastle United have won 40 of them, and the other 37 have ended in a draw.
Stats and facts:
Manchester United have the best record of Premier League matches on Boxing Day. They’ve played 18 in the Premier League, won 15 and lost just one.
Manchester United have taken more Premier League points off us than any other team. The Red Devils have picked up 75 points from the Magpies in the Premier League era.
Manchester United have scored in 57 consecutive Premier League home games. The last time they failed to score at home was during a 1-0 loss against Aston Villa in December 2009.
Newcastle are most prolific away from home in the fifteen minutes after half-time. Six of the 12 away league goals scored this season have been in this period.
Final thought…
I can usually dig up some positive statistics for the last section but this time around it was a real struggle which kind of puts into perspective how tough this game will be. The sad thing is I could have kept going with various nuggets about Manchester United, such as Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie’s scoring records against us…
As I said right at the top of the article, the best we can do is go to Old Trafford and give it our best shot. We’ve had teams that have been playing better than this current one be sent home from Manchester United with their tails whipped so I guess we just have to hope for the best and see what happens.
Howay the lads!
Date: Wednesday, 26th December, 2012
Time: 3pm
Venue: Old Trafford
Team News: Newcastle United: (4-3-3) Krul; Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini (c), Santon; Anita, Perch, Bigirimana; Cisse, Ba, Marveaux
Subs: Elliot, Tavernier, Ferguson, Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Campbell, Shola Ameobi
Manchester United: De Gea; Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra (c); Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs; Van Persie, Hernandez.
Subs: Lindegaard, Wootton, Tunnicliffe, Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Buttner
Pardew wanted us to shut up shop when it was 3-3.
But I dont think he or the players know what that means.
It doesn’t mean keep attacking with the younguns on the park.
It also doesn’t mean fanny about with the ball in our own third and then give it away AGAIN.
It doesn’t mean take off good players and bring on kids.
It doesn’t mean giving away stupid freekicks just outside our box.
It does mean get 10 men behind the ball at all times, deny space and time in and around our box, press the ball like your life depends on it and where necessary, hoof the ball out the ground if necessary.
So called lesser teams than ours have shown the ability to shut up shop at 1-0 and defend for 60 mins if necessary.
Its not pretty, but effective definitely.
How come our team doesn’t get it ?
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
(THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)
I hate the fact that we are now struggling because of the lack of investment in the Summer.
I hate the fact we have been walloped by Arsenal.
But, we have played entertaining football today and we keep the same philosophy over the next few games we will be back up there mid table.
Mid table ! What the ******* hell are we doing fighting for mid table???
Time and time again! Pay peanuts you get
Monkeys!
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Hi guys
Just want to offer an apology for lack of articles recently. Basically most of you know I missed my lads first Christmas through work so planned on having it Boxing Day. Problem is I spent most of Boxing Day asleep on the sofa through illness.
That cleared up then I got struck down again with flu (proper flu, not man flu) which basically took my two days off up. I’m still feeling the full effect of it now and I’m only on here responding to a message on Facebook.
Just remember though guys, I only see my son two days a week through work and I’m out the country working funny hours the rest of the time, and when my time at home gets cut short because of illness the very first thing I think of these days is not this website, it is instead how I can spend the time with the lad and Mrs.
Hope to be back up and running soon.
toonsy(Quote)
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Rodzilla(Quote)
flannel 😯
Rodzilla(Quote)
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TOPDOLLA LONGTIME 😎
Rodzilla(Quote)
(-47p this month like, defli record like)
Rodzilla(Quote)
FUCKING HELL!!!
…just caught the end of the **** o’clock weather and apparently if it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break 😯 😯 😯 😯
Rodzilla(Quote)
…salreet Toons, nee botha. Nee sweat off Srnicek.
Divnt mind me like, al tidy up afteris. 😎
Rodzilla(Quote)
what a ****
Rodzilla(Quote)
**** a what?
Rodzilla(Quote)
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moa 😡
Rodzilla(Quote)
…and **** off to bed.
Marmosets of Bogota.
Respekin8
Rodzilla(Quote)
I must grout my beard now.
Fine tides.
➡
Rodzilla(Quote)
Fucken terrible result but the only silver lining is that there is no denying that we need defensive reinforcements. No spin from Dekka or Pardz on this one, it is needed and it is needed now. 😕
To make matters worse, I just played 18 holes of golf with a mate who is a Boro fan. I had barely made it out of my car and he was giving it to me over the result. And let me say it didn’t ease up as the day progressed. 😈 Thankfully I beat him and it has eased some of the pain.. and he is a Boro fan so I took it easy on him… 😎
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Toonsy, I have sent you an email mate.. 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Good to hear Pardew’s comments. Realised that his substitutions didn’t help and that Marv had a good game. Who knows, Marv might start with Guti as a sub?
griff(Quote)
Just been looking at the last 10 results.
We have accrued a massive 6 points.
The worst in the PL
Even qpr and reading have managed to get 7 a piece
Troy if you think we are fighting for mid table then its time you smelt the coffee.
Put quite simply this is relegation form and we are deep in the brown stuff.
Does anyone actually think we will maintain this style of play against Everton, Norwich, Reading and villa. ❓
Perhaps if we had played like this all season I might have more confidence, but we have been shyte against the lesser teams and have only played well ( 😕 ) against the top clubs.
I can see the chins dropping big time after yesterdays result.
What a massive kick in the nads.
I just cant see where we are going to get another 20+ points from.
we are currently on target to reach 38 points.
But going on the form of the last 10 matches, we will be lucky to make it to 30 points.
Mid table my ****.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Arsenal finally showed to the world how fragile we are as a team defensively. We have been this way for the last 2 years, but got away with it a lot of times. God knows how.
Hopefully this is us at rock bottom. But we have got a long way to go.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Over the two games I think it would be fair to give Pardew a pass. I am reasonable but I think we all knew even if we were in the same form as we were last year we would not have expected to get anything.
My observations over the two games. I have read with interest that some people seemingly think we did well. We scored yes but not played well.
We have looked really disorganised and chaotic. We have not been playing as a team but rather as sections in a team. The forwards are not helping the defence and the defence not helping the attacking with midfield not being in the game at all. looks chaotic and sometimes good but it is not organised to such an extent that we can quantify or replicate it if we wanted.
5 wins in 20 games with 9 defeats nearly half of the games we played. This from the same team that finished in fifth. What is more likely, that the players a year later have suddenly deteriorated or it was a fluke? Certainly what is no fluke is Ba and his habit for scoring.
Phenomenal striker who deserves better than to have ungrateful fans blame him for our dismal performances this season when he is the only one who has elevated his performance since last season. He has scored 13 of our 23 goals this season. As many as Michu and one less than RVP and it is his fault we have lost 9 in 20? Get a grip guys.
My take is it is Pardew who is weak managerially. The weakest and luckiest manager to have graced any team. With him at the helm we would not even be able to win the championship with this team. He will say he needs more players but won’t say where he needs them. The fans would rather blame our best performing players than to see the glaring reality staring them in the eyes. That Alan Pardew is simply the poorest manager to have ever managed in the EPL possibly even more tactically void than most championship managers.
The biggest and cheapest transfer we need this window is a new manager. Not Christiano Ronaldo and Messi whom we will all say are ***** when Pardew manages a team in which they play. Suddenly they are *****!
Michael12(Quote)
Warris at it again 😛
@cwarr07: #NUFC agreed a fee of € 6 million discussions are now focusing on the bonus linked The conclusion of the case is no longer any doubt. #NUFC
3hourswasted(Quote)
Well, looks like the Ba bashers have finally seen the light. The bloke is immense, where on earth would we be without his goals ? His mere presence terrified a fragile Arsenal defence.
Top proven EPL strikers get paid big bucks, and Ba has proven himself without doubt.
Munich Mag(Quote)