Now lets get to the point – football. More specifically our visit to West Brom this afternoon.
I had the dubious honour of following the United team bus yesterday as they made their way to the Black Country. I didn’t see anything spectacular or controversial and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but for all I know they could have been getting twisted and playing shot games behind the blacked out windows, but I guess that will soon show in our level of performance.
Performance is key, in every game. I picked up some comments in the match preview thread which hinted that this may be an easy game owing to the poor form of West Brom. Make no mistake, there are no easy games in the Premier League, especially away from home and even more so against sides which are now gearing themselves up for the business end of the season where titles, European qualification and relegation are to be contested.
Anyway, sermon over. For more of a background on the match including news of injuries for both sides, a look at the history of the fixture and some stats and facts why not take a look at the match preview which you can view here? Latest team news will be published at the very bottom of this article when it becomes available.
The game itself is not being shown live here in the UK owing to the fact that it is a 3pm kick-off. However it’s not all bad news as a host of overseas channels are showing the game so hopefully picking up a stream should be too much of a problem. Once again though guys please share it if you do find one and leave a link in the ‘comments’ section below.
And that is just about that. Will we return to winning ways? Was Arsenal just a blip? Was it the start of a decline in fortunes? Have we peaked too soon? All questions to be answered soon of course.
Howay the lads!
West Brom: Foster; Jones, McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell, Mulumbu, Yacob, Amalfitano, Sessegnon, Brunt, Anelka
Subs: Myhill (gk), Vydra, Berahino, Gera, Morrison, Long, Lugano.
Newcastle: Krul; Debuchy, Coloccini (c), Williamson, Santon; Cabaye, Tiote, Sissoko; Remy, Shola Ameobi, Gouffran.
Subs: Elliot, Haidara, Yanga-Mbiwa, S.Taylor, Anita, Ben Arfa, Cisse.
come on lads, these are ****! ets get our act 2gether..
mark(Quote)
FUCKKK YOUU SHOLLAAAAA
YOU ARE NOT A FOOTBALLER
HBA39(Quote)
it was a bad tackle that mind. Wish Shola would go off
KIMTOON(Quote)
Though Hadaira came on already ❓
JJ(Quote)
Remy has been poor today to.
HBA39(Quote)
Thank F*** for that..
mark(Quote)
Ameobi off now , Haidara on, can we hang on now that’s the question
KIMTOON(Quote)
Thank f%$.
Back to ten men on the field.
JJ(Quote)
This is horrible
KIMTOON(Quote)
sitting back nu, inviting pressure..
mark(Quote)
🙄 😳
mark(Quote)
Riding the luck…
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Hopefully WBA are so ****…
HBA39(Quote)
That’s a shocking miss thank god
KIMTOON(Quote)
Is it just a 1 match ban for Debs?
KIMTOON(Quote)
West Brom are **** poor.
Pardew has tried his level best to gift them the points here and they are refusing to accept the gift.
JJ(Quote)
FFS
Big Dave(Quote)
Down to nine. No subs.
JJ(Quote)
No cards? Lucky, very lucky.
JJ(Quote)
Fucking Benny should have passed that ball along to Haidara who had made the run up the line. Instead he dribbled into traffic and lost the ball.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
**** **** **** bollocks
KIMTOON(Quote)
Let him shoot krul instead of doing that. Thats so useless.
He would have missed it alone
HBA39(Quote)
👿 😈
Big Dave(Quote)
it was coming tbh..
mark(Quote)
Can’t believe Pardew has managed to lose us this game.
West Brom are **** poor, have played **** poor and we have managed to look worse.
JJ(Quote)
yes its benny Fault he looses the ball and 35 seconds later we concede.
Sorry for him to try to play at least a little bit football. in 45 miin.
We completely deserve to loose from first second until 90 minutes.
Completely wrong tactic, at any moment in the game we show someting so we can see we want to win this game.
We were completely ****.
HBA39(Quote)
So the slump begins just as I predicted, City next and no Debuchy ,great just great.
KIMTOON(Quote)
only had to hang on for 6mins or so too 👿
KIMTOON(Quote)
well that was a wasted 90mins of 2014..
poor passing everywhere. havent played as a team 2day..
mark(Quote)
4 mins extra to try and get something from this total balls up
KIMTOON(Quote)
Hello boys and girls, Happy New year for 2014 and all the best from sunny Fuerteventura 🙂
Looks like I¨m missing a horror show here 🙁
Munich Mag(Quote)
Pardew lost us the game?
Players on the pitch do that.
funkyjesus(Quote)
@MM
was there in the summer. the windy island 😛
mark(Quote)
Oh Cabs straight down his throat
KIMTOON(Quote)
fuk that
Big Dave(Quote)
oooof, decent strike by Cabs after Benny hesitated instead of shooting
**** poor from the toon overall
mark(Quote)
Terrible Ben Arfa.
Decision making poor again. For once he had to shoot and he didn’t. 😯
JJ(Quote)
Ty for this beautiful game guys.
Really we give them the 3 points with our 2 hands.
We will not be very far from Relegation
We cannot complain about the red card really.
and happy new year.
HBA39(Quote)
Pardews poor team selection and players lacking in belief / ideas, lost us the game
BAH!
mark(Quote)
**** poor performance today and wrong players selected from the start IMO.
Bubble burst, back to being NUFC!.
Still it was nice while it lasted 🙁
Sharpy17(Quote)
Well Knew that would happen , no more static Shola please Alan ,enough is enough. How flat were we today , total ***** allround, Pards and players.
KIMTOON(Quote)
@Finky Jesus – Players only loose the game if they are NAFF and Pards picked the NAFFEST of them all today in Shola, so managers do loose matches
ash1001(Quote)
at least the Mackems and the Toffees are losing
mark(Quote)
Benny has to go it will be better for everyone him and newcastle.
People at this club prefer players like Shola.
And i m really laughing when I heard Pardew speaking about Gouff and Sissoko saying they have set the standards at the same level as Bayern MUnich wingers. *** Never heard something so stupid in my life.
You never remark Sissoko is a mix of Robben and Ribery.
HBA39(Quote)
Debuchy lost us this game.
matias(Quote)
Parses should have made wholesale changes today.
Toby Le Rhone(Quote)
Off to take down the trymings as I lost my xmas spirit.
KIMTOON(Quote)
just a blip lads, we’ll bounce back from this. Need a new striker tho to freshen things up a bit.
Sell Barfa and get a proper winger playing instead 😯
mark(Quote)
oh Everton equalise 🙄
ne match of the day for me 2nite..
mark(Quote)
Crazy 2 footed tackle cost us at least a point,red card all year long that was 😯
we were **** simple as that
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Well one thing lads and lasses 2014 can only get better after that pathetic showing .
Axel(Quote)
The day this club will understand and if they want reach a new level they need a top top class striker, but they will have to pay more than 15 millions for him. We can maybe win something.
Put Suarez in this team and you can challenge for the top 4 easily.
HBA39(Quote)
its about opinions, and mine is that Pards by his useless team selections has lost us 6 points in the last 2 games.
Arsenal were there for the taking, and as for WBA enough said earlier in the chat.
Serious doubts about Pards and its not just because we have now lost 2 in a row. far to much ‘clap trap’ from him.
Question for everyone, when was the last positive comment made about Shola (excluding ‘Thank Fook hes off’)
ash1001(Quote)
****, we need to batton down the hatches obviously. Good job we have so many points on the board already though. What a disappointing way to lose the points, seems like we have picked up a few injuries too on the way 🙁
Mark@183, aye it was blowing a hooly a few days ago, but still nice and warm compared to Minga. Today we have a balmy 27 degrees and the sun is cracking the paverment. No sign of wind here today despite 2 litres of red wine yesterday evening 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
It was a very bad game for us all around. Debuchy deserved to go, WBA had the best chances and deserved to win, Pards should have changed things up… etc, and so on.
HBA, you’re a little too sensitive about your favorite player. I was calling for his introduction at half time (or maybe he should have started), but you must confess he didn’t have a great showing today. I don’t think anybody prefers Shola.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
funkyjesus,
Who put the players on the pitch? Pardew lost us this game with some of the most schocking managing I’ve ever witnessed.
The slump was inevitable. We’ve had the rub of the green for a while now and on today’s envidence. Pardew really hasn’t good a clue.
Shola fucking Ameobi?
A fresh Anita on the bench. Cisse on the bench. A knackered midfield in Cabaye and Tiote who were crying out for help the entire game.
He’s absolutely clueless. Anita would have added a vital extra man and plenty of energy.
**** poor decisions in Arsenal game cost us a point and today has just been a complete shambles. From the starting lineup, to the delay of the substitutions.
Yes Debuchy got sent off. But we’d been under severe pressure for around 10 minutes and something had to give.
Instead of making the change. Pardew waited for the clock to hit the 65 minute mark like he usually bloody does and ended up having to make forced changed because he’d lost control of the game.
This against a poor, aging, slow and manager-less West Brom team.
We go to Old Trafford to dominate the midfield but we go to West Brom to play long ball with that handicapped donkey up front?
Where is the logic? What did he expect to get out of those tactics?
After a hectic Christmas season he hasn’t freshened the team up, he hasn’t rotated the squad and the players are finished.
So yes, he lost us the game.
West Brom were so poor today, and they should have beat us 3-0. We didn’t create a single bloody decent chance. That is how bad we were with the tactics the implemented.
JJ(Quote)
Anyway, off to lunch. So long, folks. Happy New Year!
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Ice dog and I joked on the article about Joe bringing in players this month but the last couple of games shows we NEED new players in!!.
Shola not good enough (hasn’t been for 13yrs). Gouffran looked knackered today. Sissoko has done a decent job at right wing but its not his natural position. Remy has said he wants CL football – wont get that with us so he’ll not be there next season.
We need more and it’s time for Joe to prove his appointment was worth while.
Sharpy17(Quote)
@MUNICH MAG
aye, its a lovely Island, we were in caste de fuste.
was only hitting 28’C when I was there in the summer but with the wind it was perfect.
enjoy the rest of your hols u lucky b******* 😀
mark(Quote)
Debuchy was probably our best player until the red card. The pressure kept building & building & he was trying to get a hold of the game by covering for other players who were ineffective.
I could blame the players. They can play better but they didn’t. Why, did we lose? Because the players were tired. Who’s fault is it that the players are tired??
The FA for having too many games scheduled? Nope, every other team in the league plays as many (if not more) games as us.
Is it mike ashley & joe kinnears fault for not buying enough players? Nope, we have enough players for a club that is not in europe.
No, no, no! The fault is 100% pardews today. Even with 10 players, our players are good enough to beat wba.
KK(Quote)
JJ@206
got to agree with that… Shola was a very strange decision..
mark(Quote)
For me it’s just as simple as that,
SHOLA HAS NEVER TO START A GAME, even in a cup game.
He Must be at best a sub.
Who was good in this game, apart from WIllo…anyone.
Why not keep Anita Cabaye and tiote in this fucking midfield because it works and we have good control, we play some good football but change…
I can’t understand really.
HBA39(Quote)
Agree with JJ about the match today except for Ben Arfa who didn’t have any help.
@Sharpy17
We barely need anyone in January. We have a whole bunch of players yhat are fully fit, unused premier league players on the bench.
We lost because of pardew. I’ve given him credit for the win vs man utd & the draw vs liverpool but i still maintain that he is not the manager to take us to the next level.
KK(Quote)
@milesstarforth: Fabricio Coloccini facing 4-6 weeks out with a medial ligament injury. #nufc
👿
3hourswasted(Quote)
Anita, Cisse, Ben Arfa, Mbiwa, Hadaira – 5 fresh players, all of them are good enough to start regularly but they can onlymake the bench.
This is despite knowing that Debuchy & Santon have played too many games recently. Gouffran has played too many games. Cabaye has played too many games, he has said himself that he needs a break.
That’s without getting on to the likes of Marveaux who for some reason has disappeared of the face of this earth, Jonas, Bigirimana, Sammy. WTF is the point of any of these players if the NEVER get a game?
KK(Quote)
Sissoko and Shola…
Why are these two fellows even started…
Oh pls pardew don’t tell me, just because Sissoko scored against WBA u started him… In fact other than only goal..
Passing- atrocious
Crossing- Ridiculous
Decision Making – What is he thinking.
As for Shola,
I thought we are done with playing with target man? 🙄 🙄
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
Colo out is not a big deal. I think mbiwa is better with williamson anyway as he is quicker.
It’d better not be STaylor that comes into the first 11. TBH STaylor will probably get injured so we needs a replacement for him if Curtis Good is no good.
KK(Quote)
KK – couldn’t disagree more mate. Shola 13 PL appearances 0 goals. Cisse 14 PL appearances 1 goal – a penalty that was given to him.
Remy – 17 PL appearances 10 goals – not a Newcastle player.
Explain to me who we have on OUR books that will score the goals?. We desperately need forwards man.
Sharpy17(Quote)
@AOD
Sissoko should not be starting ahead of anita. No one should. His crossing is not too bad though but today it was – i guess tiredness?
The rest of his technical skills are rubbish. It’s the most important thing he should be working on.
Apparently a 50% Cabaye is still better than a 100% Anita
KK(Quote)
I can’t blame Shola because he doesn’t pick himself, but I genuinely believe his single greatest contribution to the success of the club one day will be his retirement.
It must be so disheartening for players of Ben Arfa, Anita, Cisse and Marvauex’s caliber to sit on the bench and watch this div 3 rate striker walk around the field.
There isn’t another Premier League Club that would want him. Stoke even turned him down when they were in the Championship after a poor loan spell.
It must be just as frustrating for any talented youngster to know that he stands in their way of making the squad because he is “Mr reliable”. Stunting their progression.
They have to question the club’s ambition.
If the club got a good manager and got rid of Shola we could reach new heights.
People have said he has had a good season this year…
So 14 games, no goals and no assists, managing just 15 shots is a decent season? Really???
JJ(Quote)
Sharpy,
In fairness to Cisse, he did have a goal unfairly chalked off and he has two assists. So he’s had three less starts than Shola and been involved in four more goals.
Shola being first choice is an absolute joke.
JJ(Quote)
we don’t need striker?!?! 😯 🙄
mark(Quote)
@Sharpy17
We need 1 forward in January to replace Shola. Pardew has suggested he wants Shola to be given a new contract. If i was Mike Ashley & Pardew really felt that way, i wouldn’t sign a striker.
We have Remy until the end of the season. A replacement for Remy is needed in the summer, not now.
Cisse is still our best finisher & Mike Ashleys biggest transfer in. If he’s not scoring Pardew & Co better do something about it ASAP.
Demba Ba as a replacement for Shola in January would be good but it really depends on how much Pardew wants to keep Shola.
1 centre back to replace STaylor if curtis good is rubbish. Somebody to replace obertan.
There are transfers that would improve the squad but the entire first 11 is already very strong.
What’s the point in having stength in depth if none of the squad players get used (swansea, stoke, wba)???
KK(Quote)
This season,
Both have played 14 games. Cisse has six starts and Shola has nine.
Shola’s passing stats are 70%
Cisse’s passing stats are 80%
Shola is dispossed on average 1.5 times per game.
Cisse is dispossed on average 1.1 times per game.
These are important stats for a supposed “target man”. Being able to keep hold of the ball!
Shola has scored or assisted zero goals
Cisse has scored or assisted three goals (should be four).
So Cisse is more likely to keep hold of the ball and Cisse is more likely to contribute towards goals.
Cisse is in poor form no doubt. People say Shola is playing well. So it just proves that a **** Cisse is better than a good Shola.
JJ(Quote)
“What’s the point in having stength in depth if none of the squad players get used (swansea, stoke, wba)???”
Exactly.
He only uses about 14 players when the squad is fully fit. So What is the point in signing anybody else? We only need a new striker.
We have Cisse, Ben Arfa, Mbiwa, Anita all sitting on the bench every week.
JJ(Quote)