Manchester City v Newcastle United – Premier League match preview

City v The real United
City v The real United
Newcastle head to Manchester to take on reigning Premier League Champions Manchester City at the Etihad tomorrow afternoon.

For me this is one of those “write off” games where I’m not expecting anything but if we do manage to grab a point or three it will be more than a welcome bonus.

The task is tough. City have quality all over the pitch and even though they’ve looked poor in recent weeks and have seen any chance of retaining their title shrink to just a slim glimmer of hope as their city rivals seemingly run away with things, the fact is that we’ve NEVER won at the Etihad and you have to go back to the year 2000 to find the last time we managed a win at Manchester City’s old ground.

Of course anything can happen in football and all that, but Manchester City will be overwhelming favourites for this and need to win to maintain any hope of prolonging their chase of Manchester United for another week. Perhaps the added pressure could would in our favour? I don’t know, but an unexpected point or three wouldn’t go amiss as we look to put some distance between ourselves and those scrapping it out in the relegation mix.

Manchester City:

Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany are all available after recovering from injury ensuring Roberto Mancini has virtually a full squad to choose from.

Newcastle:

Alan Pardew has somewhat of a selection headache when it comes to the full back positions on both sides of the pitch. Davide Santon, Mathieu Debuchy and, luckily for not as long as was first feared, Massadio Haidara are all missing so I’m assuming we’ll see Danny Simpson at right-back with Jonas Gutierrez at left-back.

Cheik Tiote is also unavailable although given the way he’s been playing since he started believing his own hype I’m not sure whether his absence is a good thing or a bad thing.

Tim Krul is back in training but won’t be considered for selection while Fabricio Coloccini is back on Tyneside but still approximately three weeks away from full fitness. Hatem Ben Arfa is still out although may not have to go under the knife to cure his hamstring problem whilst Ryan Taylor and Haris Vuckic remain out.

Previously…

City won the reverse fixture 3-1 at St James’ park just before Christmas and in truth it was pretty comfortable for them, so a win tomorrow would complete City’s third consecutive league double over us.

Recently we’ve been poor against City. Of course that has been aided by the increase in the ability of players they have at their disposal, but overall we still hold the advantage when it comes to head-to-head records. There have been 166 games between the two sides. United have won 70, City have won 58 with the other 38 ending in a draw.

Stats and facts:

Mike Williamson could make his 100th appearance for United.

Manchester City have lost just once at home this season and have conceded a league-lowest 11 goals at home. To add to that, City have the best defensive record in the entire league as things stand.

Newcastle have kept one clean sheet in their last 12 league games.

United have conceded 35 second-half goals this term. Only Aston Villa have conceded more (37) in the second half of matches.

Final thought…

Anything is a bonus really for me. I don’t expect anything but if we turn up and play to our potential then you just never know. I’m not banking on any points though so as long as we give a good account of ourselves against a team that has undoubted within its ranks I’ll be happy enough.

Howay the lads!

Date: Saturday, 30th March, 2013

Time: 3pm

Venue: The Etihad 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.

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

  1. The point I don’t get is that 35% ? Of SD owners are getting masive global advertisement benefits from Nufc for free, why should they benefit from it when we as.a club could be generating more money to stay within the club.
    I have no problem wit jabba taking the £11 mil out to repay himself for the interest free loan he loaned himself, but I do have a problem with SD and it’s minority of owners that are making massive profits through the advertisement that we as.a.club are providing them FOC.

    Aussie your wrong it would still bother me if any compamy was.gaining benefits from us through free advertisement. The advertising space that SD have got @ at SJP is practically from top to bottom over almost every space that space could be earning us a top player every year.

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  2. I think SD should be paying for advertisement they get. Even if its money off what we owe Ashley. Its not the worst thing in the world but its costing the.club revenue and in the dog eat dog world of football we.need all we can get to help us compete.
    Not expecting much from today. Be happy with a good performance.

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  3. Big D, the finances of it all are somewhat beyond me, cos we all know how the accountants arrange things so that everyone does ok. I would imagine SD and Ashley have accountants which are fully familiar with these ways.

    What peeves me somewhat is the association between NUFC and SD and the image of SD as a somewhat bucket shop sports outfitter. Perhaps the day will come when SD have a somewhat different public image throughout the retailing world, and through there association with NUFC that view of the SD brand will improve. Perhaps the global image of SD abroad is different compared to how they are viewed in the UK. At the end of the day, Nike, Red Bull etc etc all started small (not that I am tagging SD in this category btw… 😳 )…

    The second issue which peeves me is the tackyness of having sponsor signs bladdered all over the place. There is surely a government norm covering the amount of square metres of advertising that one is allowed to clag on your property, and the TV exposure that brings with it.

    On a similar subject, I’ll never forget the uproar here in Munich during the footy world cup. Munich has at least 6 of there own breweries, and we all know how brilliant German beer is. However, of course the World Cup sponsors are the usual suspects, we don’t need to mention who they are. You can imagine the German brewers being relatively “disgruntled” by the sponsorship issue, and by the fact they couldn’t sell there own wares on “home turf”…

    Big D, I don’t want to take the focus away from you and B&B being at handbags at twenty paces, I just thought I would hoy in another perspective on the discussion… 😆

    TTBAWA !

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  4. Kev – I think you are confused. You say yourself it is a private company. That does not mean it’s not a limited company. NUFC is a separate legal entity. Mikey can’t just dip his hand into the company’s cash or assets as if it’s his own money in a persoanl bank account. He has to observe corporate governance rules as well as be mindful of major tax consequences. If Mikey or a future purchaser wants money out of the company, they can have it relatively easily under the present set up by simple repayment of some or all of the loan. however, if Mikey gifted the loan to NUFC, the money would be in the company and reflected in the value of the company. The downside of that is that the owner of the company would find it more difficult to extract cash from the company by way of remuneration or dividend without tax and NIC consequences.

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  5. MM I feel the exact same the place looks like a fuking advertisement hoarding with signs crammed in anywhere they will go.
    I am not into all the finance side of things either this all started after Stuart suggested raising thr ticket prices to bring more money in, to which I said we would be better of to sell the adverising rights rather than SD plastering the whole ground for free.
    To which B&B came on later to say I was nitpicking and shouldn’t because they’re helping pay the mortgage 😯
    So I asked where his proof was that SD where paying 😕 then he went his usual ways with essays that don’t give a straight answer but actually end up asking me questions.then tries to imply that I was being a tool, then when I pulled him about his childish **** he tried to squirm out of it like usual, at that point I then knew I had won the debate and ceased from replying.
    Not a bit of wonder Troy couldn’t be assed to debate with him as it always ends up like a water stapling excercise. I think Troy had the right idea in how to deal with him

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  6. Big D, I hear where you are coming from mate 😉 I wasn’t sure where the debate started, but know where it ended. I hoyed in my tuppence worth on the sponsorship side of thing…

    Stuart is probably onto something there with raising the prices. The bean counters will perhaps know (and also the season ticket holders, of which I believe Stu and perhaps B&B are ones), what the price hikes have been like over the last few years. It’s obviously a happy balance of not charging too much for the regular punters, whilst not taking the pee every year with huge price hikes.
    At the end of the day, if we put a half decent side tgether we will have full houses anyway, so this money is a guaranteed income for Ashley… At the same time, the punters need to feel that Ashley isn’t ripping them off, and while I am speaking from a position of ignorance, not living on the tyne, and not knowing how the regular punters feel, I get the impression that Ashley is trying hard to make seeing the toon financially acceptable for the masses.

    Perhaps someone can put me right or enlighten me on my last supposition… ❓

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  7. How good was Fergie’s goal for Brum by the way? So glad he’s been given an opportunity to prove himself

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  8. Its MA’s club so he can do what he wants with the advertising side BUT we should receive something from his advertising, like some said, money should be deducted from the loan we have off MA.

    Why should he get free advertising? Its another income we would be getting from elsewhere so some kind of payment should be expected.

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  9. Rod @ 43 and 54

    😆 😆

    Brilliant that you break up these serious debates with pish, makes it bearable 😆

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  10. Big Dave, I had typed out a well written response and then my connection dropped off… grrr..
    Mate the interest on a bank loan would cost us more players than lost advertising revenue

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  11. Moreno, agree mate, Rodz posts made more sense than B&B’s 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  12. Mark, B&B is drafting up a 3 page thesis on how to simplify his posts 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  13. He actually employs someone at minimum wage to type whilst he paces up and down the room procrastinating

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  14. In the last thread, M had a link about us making a move for Sakho (English-language equivalent at http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-articles/newcastle-linked-again-with-top-french-international/), but asked if we could match the 70k a week he’s getting. With the tax rates, it’s workable – the lad currently gets about 17.5k in hand (with the rest going to subsidise butter mountains and military interventions in Mali). If NUFC were to sign Sakho on just 40k, he’d receive an after-tax raise to 22k a week.

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  15. good on him. but it will be ignored since you have settled the debate.

    Big Dave lost
    B&B lost us all
    Aussie ended it with a one liner.. its a funny auld game.. classic Bruce forsyth quote that..

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  16. Aussie I disagree mate SD gets seen more than any other sponsor including imo virgin, I just seen a quick clip this morning of pard pre game talk and all I could notice on the adbertisement board behind him was SD.
    And you say the interest on the loan would cost us more 😕 well whos fault was it that so much money was thrown away via NSA amd his backroom staff , KK and that fiasvo, nacho, xisco etc etc and whos fault was it we got relegated costing us roughly £40mill was that our fault that we needed the loan because of that or was it Jabba’s fault he needed to give himself a loan ?
    If your happy enough to accept all that thats your choice but i’m not.
    So are you then happy enough to see 35% of SD owners that have nowt to do with our club make a fortune in their shares with the help of our free advertisements, at our expense

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  17. Big Dave, I couldn’t care less about the SD advertising mate. It doesn’t impact on the joy I get from watching the boys play. It is all white noise to me! You can’t say we would be better off with the advertising and I can’t say we are better off with the interest free loan. We will never know and we are concerning ourselves over things we can’t control….

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  18. Mark-Yeah, could be competition if he gets in our side! I’d probably put him ahead of Jonas if he’s on the wing. I remember he took one or two free kicks for us but they didn’t go to well and I wondered if he had it on his locker, but clearly he does!

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  19. Reet, off doon toon for some birthday gargles with the missus. Expect to come back to the good news of a 1-2 toon win 😉

    HWTL TTBAWA

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  20. Sunderland are 1 down against Man U. Bramble deflected it in 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  21. Dave – You got your back up because I accused anyone carping about the non-payment by SD for advertising as nitpicking.

    As an analogy, it’s like you have got a rich pad in London that your father finances by paying your mortgage interest to the tune of £5K a month. When the MD of another of your father’s companies visits London on business once a month, he parks his car in your drive. The rental cost would be say £250. You criticize your father in social media saying that he should be paying you £250 for the privilege. To me that’s an insult.

    Your father wants to arrange it that way for reasons best known to himself (on your own admission you can’t understand it). However, you won’t have it. He has to pay you £250. So he pays you for the drive rental and reduces the mortgage interest he pays for you by the same amount – or even more to cover the tax savings lost. To me that’s nitpicking.

    The flaw in your argument is that you can’t explain why Mikey doesn’t insist on SD paying in full given that he wholly owns NUFC but is only a majority shareholder in SD. Are you suggesting he’s diddling himself? I’ve given you possibilities but you won’t have it.

    You say, “As for Mike lending his own club money we have been over this hundreds of times, when he sells the club he will get his money back including the interest free loan he lent himself.” You can’t lend yourself money. NUFC is a separate legal entity. Money saved by NUFC accrues to the benefit of NUFC and only indirectly accrues to Mikey’s benefit by an increased share value. In fact, there are good reasons why that arrangement is costing Mikey personally and benefiting the club.

    So, you believe you’ve won the argument if you like. You always do. In my book, it’s not even an argument, but a discussion.

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  22. @bb
    As you understand Nufc and Mike Ashley are separate entities you obviously know that the same is true of Mike Ashley and Sports Direct?
    Sports Direct receive advertising, therefore should pay for it. It would make.people a lot more comfortable if they knew there was x amount being paid for what they received.
    What do you estimate.the advertising benefits received btw?

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  23. B&B, back on form mate 🙂 🙂
    Look I agree with you to a point. I have done jobs for mates which were free but based on the understanding that if I needed a favour from them, they would respond in kind. There doesn’t need to be an agreement in place or money changing hands, just a firm knowledge that no one is really getting taken for a ride.

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  24. B+B I will make this very brief and simple when you say ” but it looks like you’re just being a complete tool ” that proves to me that you have just lost the debate, because I don’t and won’t waste my time debating or discussing with someone that lowers themselves to childish **** ( though in your case maybe it was a case of not being able to control your drink ) then tries to back out of it and say they didn’t mean it.
    Hope this clears it up

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  25. ST @ 104 I could sort of understand it a bit more if Jabba was the owner of SD and was the only one gaining ( but it would still not make it right ) but there is 35% of SD owners getting free advertising and making money out of us, as the amount of exposure SD get from us would cost an absolute fortune. add to that the exposure they got from the ground carrying their name for 3 seasons

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  26. Dave – Don’t be too sparing to suit your argument. I said, “it looks like you’re just being a complete tool. I apologise if I’ve got you wrong and it is my fault, …” So I never called you a complete tool and apologized if you weren’t taking the ****. It suits you to say as much and avoid answering any of the numerous question put to you.

    I asked you question after question in post after post but you didn’t answer. Then you come up with: “B+B so you prove yet again that you can’t give a simple answer without answering it without a question, if you can’t or don’t want to give a simple answer just tell me ”

    I go on to say: “I said Ashley gave NUFC the massive interest free loan and to me I have categorically answered your question.”

    You then come back with: “B+B so your saying he gave himself the loan ”

    Then you start: “So because Jabba gave himself ( NUFC ) a loan…”

    I kept saying he gave NUFC a loan. I have never said he gave himself a loan. Only you seem to be saying he is giving himself a loan. How do you get that? At this point I thought you were just taking the ****, especially at the tone of your previous posts was facetious.

    I’ll provide a list of all the questions you haven’t answered if you want? And yet I’ve answered all yours and had to repeat my answers to you several times in the hope you’d get it.

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