Game On! Newcastle v Stoke

toonsy

It'll be homely this Christmas...
It’ll be homely this Christmas…
Good afternoon one and all. I trust you had a wonderful Christmas Day full of happiness?

Well that’s all gone now. Only 364 days until the next one. So with Christmas out of the way we can all focus on football once more.

Up today we have the visit of Stoke City in what is a rare Boxing Day fixture at home for us. Usually it is fans of United who are subjected to long trips over the Christmas period but this time round it has fallen rather favourably for us with back-to-back home games between now and New Year.

This won’t be an easy game – matches against Stoke rarely are and while much has been made about our recent form, as pointed out in my match preview , it is well worth noting that Stoke have only lost one of the last eight games just like us.

Both sides are missing at least one player as Cheik Tiote sits out for United through suspension and Robert Huth continues to recover from an operation for Stoke. Full team news will be available ahead of the match and can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Unfortunately we are kicking off at 3pm UK time which we aren’t being broadcast live here in Blighty. The good news is that a rake of overseas companies are showing the game so there should be some streams kicking about. If you do find one then please share it with your fellow NUFC fans and leave a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below.

Sticking with the Christmas theme, I guess this article is now neatly wrapped up and we can focus on the football. Hopefully our players laid off the party food yesterday and we don’t suffer from a hangover.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Krul; Debuchy, Coloccini (c), Williamson, Santon; Sissoko, Cabaye, Anita; Ben Arfa, Remy, Gouffran

Subs: Elliot, Yanga-Mbiwa, S.Taylor, Haidara, Obertan, Shola Ameobi, Cisse

Stoke: Sorensen, Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson, Pieters, Walters, Nzonzi, Whelan, Adam, Assaidi, Crouch

Subs: Butland, Muniesa, Palacios, Jones, Arnautovic, Wilkinson, Ireland

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.

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275 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Stoke”

  2. I may be being greed but I’d be disappointed with anything other than a win today like.
    I look at Stoke and they are very average in every position. We should have more than enough to turn them over today.

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  5. Wow, that is a very strong team. Sharpy & Big Dave are spot on, anything less than 3pts will not be good enough (at least on paper).

    I also don’t want to see a scrappy game. I would say only Williamson & Sissoko have bad technical skills in that lineup. Everybody else is a ball player so we should expect to see some fantastic bits of football.

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  6. @M

    Yeah hopefully we’ll see something more like this:

    ————————–Krul————————-
    Debuchy—Coloccini—Williamson—Santon
    ———Sissoko—-Cabaye——–Anita——–
    ———————–Ben Arfa———————-
    —————-Remy——-Gouffran————–

    Honestly though, i expect it to be 442 with Ben Arfa & Sissoko wide & Gouffran playing alongside Remy.

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  7. Sharpy- Similar thoughts here mate. When asked who are your best players? One of their fans said, – ‘We have probably the best goalkeeper in Europe’. If you have to talk about your goalkeeper that’s a bit worrying. 😕 And he’s not playing by the looks of it. 🙂

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  8. DJG – yeah, good GKs but that’s it, and now I’ve seen the line ups it HAS to be 3 points for me like.

    I see Man Utd win by an OG!. Moyes is hanging on in there .. Just!.

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  9. ‘Ben Arfa comes in for the only change. He hasn’t started since the derby defeat to Sunderland almost two months ago.
    He will play wide of main striker Loic Remy, with Yoan Gouffran also up front. Moussa Sissoko will join Yohan Cabaye and Vurnon Anita in midfield.
    Unsurprisingly, United’s defence – which has conceded just one goal in the last three matches – remains unchanged.’

    Maybe Stoke will sit deep and Ben Arfa has been assigned to unlock them and float around between the banks of 4 to slide balls through to Gouffran and Remy. Another goal for Ben Arfa would be nice as well though.

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  10. KK – don’t like Sissoko in the middle (as his passing/general technique is too inconsistent) and I’d be loathe to break up his burgeoning right-side partnership with Debuchy.

    I hope we stick with roughly the same formation and approach that served us well @ manU and Palace with Cabaye sitting deeper alongside Anita and HBA playing ahead of them

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  11. Will Ben Arfa give us a MOTM performance today?

    He’s had the most rest & is in terms of ability our best player.

    With the WorldCup coming up & not many games under his belt, i think he might be our most motivated player too.

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  13. Any one got a link ? i think we will see another performance like the Crystal Palace one today . Another 3 points in the bag and keeping the CL dream alive
    HWTL

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  15. @M

    I agree Sissoko has done well on the right but he really is a Centre Mid.

    It’s kind of like playing Anita as a fullback. He’ll do a good job but it’s not what he is best at.

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  17. <<<< has no worrys about playing sissiko in dm its more of a natural postion for him,think pards is makeing sure we dint get out nuscled in midfield

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  30. THAT is the main reason our strikers go through barren spells. Right there. Remy through on goal in acres of space but Sissoko ***** about and loses the ball.

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  33. I’d go as far as to say that a piece of play THAT bad is equal to an own goal. Cost an almost certain goal there.

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  35. Sissoko simply isn’t suited to the advanced play maker role. He’s far far better running from deep or from wide.

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  36. Has our attack been given instructions to stay out of the box and not try to score? What a joke it’s like we aren’t playing with any attackers. Suppose it’s better than playing Cisse though as he’s complete and utter garbage!

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  41. Sissoko too poor in the middle i will put him in the wing and Bring Cabaye in the middle with Anita and put Benny in place of Cabaye.
    I don’t know why we sit so deep today.

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  42. Sissoko doesn’t know what to do with the ball when he’s got it. Dribbling out his own box before, lost it easily, didn’t give a ****.

    A few good results against top teams masks how poor we are. The fact we are 6th is beyond belief. We did outplay man utd but I absolutely hate the way this team plays under Pardew. Our best player isn’t even our player.

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  45. Cisse taking more abuse even though he isn’t on the field. 🙄 🙄

    Same fans worshiped him not so long ago, said Debuchy was *****, wanted to sell Tiote and Cabaye, and think Remy is God.

    Another two games without a goal, Remy will be ***** too.

    Some of our supporters are a joke really.

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  47. JJ
    You’ll find when you’re a club established in 1892 and you have a fanatical world support ‘some’ fans will think all sorts 😉

    Cisse has been ***** for us other than his first half season. Fact.

    We need a proper goal scorer down the middle, not Remy on loan who for me is a attacking winger

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  57. Our biggest weakness is Ben Arfa if we’re going to pick on any players.

    The reason we don’t have enough players in the box is because he is one of the front three and he isn’t prepared to do any running off the ball – like Gouffran does.

    He just wants to ball at his feet all the time and for everyone else to do the dog work. That means he comes deep to get it leaving just two up front. It also leaves us narrow because he comes to the middle of the pitch.

    The odd moment of brilliant and super goal may make him look superb, but he is totally overated. And he brings the team dynamic down. Yet he is constantly worshiped. While someone like Cisse who has a much much better record for is gets slated as useless.

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  58. Can we please put Sissoko in the wing he will be much more effective.
    We play like old style with hoofing and we loose all the balls.
    We cannot find Cabaye between the lines.

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  60. Honestly Toonsy it pains me watching this side sometimes. Individually these players can be superb, why do the fail to show up every other week?

    Then people like JJ call our fans a joke for not being impressed with sub standard performances lasting well over a season. To me that’s a joke for the wages and talent they have

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  62. So JJ some fans are a joke for saying owt about Cisse but you follow that up with

    ‘Ben arfa …. If we’re going to pick on players”

    What a hypocrite!!!

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  63. I’d take Ben Arfa off ASAP.

    Put Sissoko on the right, Gouff on the left.

    I said before the game, I’d play Mbiwa DC and Colo in Tiote’s DM role, because Sissoko can’t play the anchor role.

    So Pardew has cocked up here IMO.

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  64. Moreno
    If any fan can honestly tell me Ben Arfa has statistically done more for Newcastle on the pitch since he’s been here than Cisse, then yes, they are jokers. 100%.

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  66. We look gash today like. I have to be honest I don’t like Benny in the team personally. We don’t have enough up front and Sissoko isn’t looking his best either.
    Pardew needs to make changes or that’s the bubble burst

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  67. JJ
    I don’t know what you see in this game. But in my opinion you are wrong.
    You just say that because we played good other games and the only change today is Ben Arfa so its easy to make him being the problem. But we loose against Swansea with exactly the same team.

    Santon Sissoko are really weak to in this game. We don’t see cabaye today.

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  69. JJ
    Yes i tell you Cisse has done nothing in his last appearance. Our only chance of goals came from benny today.
    SO yes i prefer Ameobi to Cisse.

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  71. The difference between top sides who perform well and ones that don’t is a strong defensive midfielder/anchorman on form

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  75. JJ-Football isn’t played in statistics, otherwise tiote wouldn’t be worth putting in a league 2 side…

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