Newcastle v Manchester City – Premier League match preview

United v City
The proper United v City
Newcastle attempt to put their disappointing FA Cup exit behind them by welcoming Manchester City to St James’ Park tomorrow.

A return to winning ways would ease some of the pressure that has started to build once more after an impressive first half of the season.

However that return to winning ways, if it transpires that way, will have to be against a side who are playing extremely well at the moment. Manchester City seem to have found a solution to their problem of having so many expensive superstar players in one side and have now become a team rather than a set of individuals.

City look more fearsome right now than they ever have done and their results at home speak for themselves. They’ve played ten league games at the Etihad and have won every one of them scoring nearly four goals on average in each of those matches. Away from home they have been shaky but even those blemishes are starting to be erased and they’ve not lost on the road since their visit to Sunderland back in November. They are setting themselves up nicely for the tail end of the season.

Newcastle:

Fabricio Coloccini is still sidelined and Mathieu Debuchy is still suspended so both will miss this game along with, potentially, Davide Santon who is struggling with a thigh problem. Ryan Taylor remains absent and will be for a good while yet.

It’s not all bad news though as Yohan Cabaye, who missed the defeat to Cardiff with an achilles issue could return while Tim Krul should be fit to resume goalkeeping duties.

Manchester City:

Sergio Aguero is out as he continues to recover from a calf injury. Stevan Jovetic and Micah Richards might be fit enough to return to the squad while Jack Rodwell and Jesus Navas are both doubts ahead of the game.

Previously…

Our previous against City doesn’t make for good reading in recent years and you have to scroll back to September 2005 to find our last recorded win against them which was a 1-0 victory courtesy of a Michael Owen goal.

Since then we’ve hosted Manchester City seven times (six in the league, once in the League Cup) with only a solitary draw to our name.

However it’s not all bad news as we do still hold the upper hand historically. There has been 169 meetings between the two clubs with United winning 70 times, City winning 61 times with 38 draws rounding things off. At St James’ Park we’ve played 77, won 48, drawn 15 and lost 14 matches.

Stats and facts…

Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 14 Premier League matches against Newcastle, winning the last eight.

Newcastle have not lost four games in a row for just over a year.

Loic Remy has been caught offside (23 times) more than any other player in the Premier League.

Newcastle have the same points after the same amount of games as we accrued in the season where we finished fifth. We’re also 13 points better off than at the same stage last season.

Final thought…

I know this sounds a little bit like a love in towards Manchester City. It’s not meant to be but few can deny they’ve been devastating and impressive of late.

If only the same could be said for Newcastle eh? The wheels are wobbling at the moment and a game against a side bang in form is probably not what we need right now. Mind you, stranger things have happened and lets be fair, we’ve come up short against supposed weaker teams so why not try and get back to winning ways the hard way?

The key word there is ‘try’ and as long as we do that I’ll be happy enough. We may not be able to compete with the spending power of City or their quality on the pitch, but we can match their effort at the very least.

Howay the lads!

Date: Sunday, 12th January, 2014

Time: 2:05pm

Venue: St James’ Park

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.

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

  1. I just hope that useless **** Steven Taylor doesn’t start or even Cisse for that matter. Manchester City will have a field day tomorrow if Pardew decides to go all defensive and sit in our own half. I reckon the score will be 1-4 tomorrow.

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  2. Sunderland winning was a bit of a blow and West ham winning. Two teams I would like to see relegated. Really surprised by Fulham this season. They have Bent, Berbatov, Duff and many other high earners in the side and Jol’s taken the club down hill.

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  3. 3 of our first choice back 4 out against a team who have scored a million goals this season – what can possibly go wrong?

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  4. JJ – Pardew obviously doesn’t think Marv should be playing anywhere!

    Its amazing, we’ve lost 3 on the bounce yet still Marv cannot get a game, we won’t pick Jonas due to his contract and we only seem to have one striker who Pardew thinks can score goals.

    We just keep looking opportunity in the eye and spitting in it!

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  5. If that is the case with Jonas’ contract. Why don’t we loan him out to get some wages off the wage bill or transfer list him. Even if its a free transfer?

    Should have been done at the start of the season.

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  6. Makes it a bit of a joke that Jonas gets a place on the bench ahead of Marv when we have no intention of playing him.

    Pardews preference for players unlikely to be ours the following season baffles me.

    He has zero forward thinking capability. That along with his inability to adapt tactics in a game we lose a foothold on without going the long ball route are why I think he’s a very limited manager.

    After today we will be some way off the top 7. And I can only see us sliding further down.

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  7. Stuart,
    So sell a proven goal scorer and buy two guys who have gone more off the boil than Cisse in poor leagues. And an unknown AM who has had one half decent season at a way over valued at 14 million.

    I’d much rather get rid of Pardew and actually get in a manager who can get the best out of our players on a regular basis.

    People get so desperate for signings they end up being happy with any name.

    Last season everyone wanted Benteke. Now he isn’t mentioned.
    Or that lad Norwich got from Holland. Again nobody mentions him.

    We have a quality striker in Cisse. We have a manager that can’t get the best out of his players.

    Think its clear where we need to strengthen.

    Either way. It won’t happen. We’re stuck with Pards and we won’t sign more than one player. One at most IMO.

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  8. JJ -Cisse hasn’t particularly been a proven goal scorer to be honest. Not withstanding that he’s not even getting in the team and to get £10m for a sub which would allow us to bring in 3 players who our scouts obviously like would be a good move.

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  9. Any news on the possible injury list?
    I actually think with our full XI we could’ve won this. Man City haven’t been as impressive on their travels and are currently without Aguero. Negredo may be a Beast but we have Iron Mike!

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  10. Have just read on nufc.com that there are rumours of Cisse to Qatar.
    Would people JJ/Kim/Dave etc sell Cisse for a replacement?
    I want rid tbh. If Pardew doesn’t rate him then there’s no point him being here; whether that is Pardew’s poor judgement or Cisse’s poor application in training – I don’t know.

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  11. We should have sold him in the summer. To go on a pre-season tour without your first choice striker, despite being fit, was a complete farce.

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  12. Stuart,
    If you are naive enough to believe that the 10 million we may or may not get for Cisse would get the board to buy those three players, then you are way more positive than people give you credit for?

    Gomis, we could probably get for 2-3million. So that’s fair enough. He’d be a much better option than Shola.

    But Cabella has been valued over 10 million himself and de Jong cost his club over 10 million. So IF the board did go for all o those three players – which they won’t. It would cost us around 20 million pounds for ALL of them.

    So at the end of the season, we’d have gained De Jong for Cisse (Cisse was far far far more successful in the same league).

    We’d have swapped Remy, Shola and 10 million pounds for Cabella and Gomis.

    Don’t see that as good business at all. In fact its terrible business.

    But like I said. Some fans would just accept any names through the door. Even if they’ve hardly see them play. That’s how desperate the board has made us.

    I’d only really accept the offer for Cisse if we then used the money to tie Remy to a permanent deal. But it wouldn’t be long before then fans got on his back too because he will get Pardewed at some stage himself.

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  13. Solano,
    “You long ball talk is proven tosh”

    Not really, unless you are blind, its quite obvious that Shola is thrown on as a long ball option when things go bad.

    If players then go against Pardew’s tactics and actually keep the ball on the ground, it actually renders a Shola substitution pointless because the only thing Shola is good for is competing for aerial ball.

    I don’t see how you’ve proven anything. But if it keeps your little ego in tact, then I guess you can believe what you want. 😉 😛

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  14. JJ – We could easily pick up De Jong for a small loan fee (we’re already trying apparently for £1m), Gomis would be about £2m and Cabella for £10m as you say. That would mean a net spend of circa £3m for three players! On what planet do you not think that’s good business?

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  15. JJ
    I think that notion of fans getting on Remy’s back before long is unfair to to those of us that don’t get hysterical when a player has a few bad games.
    The fact is that Cisse is purely a goalscorer. Even during his goal spree he wasn’t offering to overall play. A Remy not scoring still offers to the team, a Cisse doesn’t.

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  16. Stuart,
    Because we end up spending all the money to be left with Gomis as our only striker at the end of the season?

    He isn’t a goal scorer but just a better version of Shola.

    On what planet do you see that as good business?

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  17. Solano @96,
    That statement is very much an individual opinion. There are already people getting on Remy’s back.

    Also, you are clearly still clueless when it comes to statistics and what they represent.

    Yes, the team has played less long balls this season – I’m very happy about that.
    But when Shola plays we play more long balls. If we don’t he may as well be the wheelie bin on the half way line that Ice Dog referred to because if he isn’t challenging for aerial ball he is absolutely useless.

    When he is thrown on from the bench it’s usually because Pardew has seen we are losing the midfield battle so instead of playing an extra midfielder, he tries to take the midfield out of play by throwing Shola on and reverting to long ball.

    That’s his “plan B”. If you don’t see that’s what he uses Shola for then we must be watching completely different games.

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  18. Ah yes. Being called clueless by a boy that has in the past claimed he wants us to lose 😆 🙄
    I am just saying – the idea that Pardew loves long ball and only plays Shola for longball tactics is wrong. Otherwise we would have played more long balls this year; in fact you have been the only one I have seen complaining about it!
    “When he is thrown on from the bench it’s usually because Pardew has seen we are losing the midfield battle so instead of playing an extra midfielder, he tries to take the midfield out of play by throwing Shola on and reverting to long ball.”
    How many times has that happened this season, JJ?
    TWICE
    Long ball is not an acceptable stick to beat Pardew with. Throwing everything into the kitchen sink in the last 10 when losing isn’t exactly something unique to just our club. 🙄

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  19. I can’t see anyone getting on Remy’s back 😯
    Few have said he hasn’t been on form.

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  20. Anyway, game hasn’t even kicked off yet. Lets get behind Pardew and all the lads playing 😉
    Krul
    Saylor
    Mbiwa
    Willo
    Dummet
    Tiote
    Anita
    Sissoko
    Cabaye
    Goof
    Remy
    4-2-3-1 for me.
    That backline looks very suspect though 😐
    What is Tav’s deal these days? Still at Rotherham?

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  21. Would prefer we hang on to Cisse tbh, but if the manager doesn’t rate him then we should sell him asap if only for the lads benefit, he needs games and is now in danger of stagnating with us under Pards. Hope he doesn’t go to another PL club under an astute manager cause he’ll surely be back to haunt us.

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  22. Solano ,Don’t matter who gets selected today ,I fear a walloping coming on 🙁 . I just want us to at least have a go, none of this sitting deep if we go ahead either, can’t stand it and it hardly ever works.

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  23. Kim
    Agree, don’t think I could stomach 90 minutes of sitting deep and waiting for City to destroy us 👿

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  24. Christ, it’s like arguing with a halfwit.

    Shola is played as a target man. He receives the majority of the long balls. That doesn’t mean than the passing around him is all long ball. But 90% of the long balls played in a game will be aimed in the direction of Shola.

    What I’m saying is that shows that Pardew is limited, because IMO we’d have more success playing an extra midfielder (Anita).

    But he is played mainly as a long ball option, especially when he comes on from the bench. I think that’s obvious.

    “Throwing everything into the kitchen sink in the last 10 when losing isn’t exactly something unique to just our club.”

    When your tactics aren’t working because you’ve got it wrong and can’t think of an alternative – which several English managers have a problem with, because they’re ****. Yes they revert to long ball for the last 20 minutes of the game.

    I agree, it isn’t unique. Its quite common in the Premier League because managers are limited in general. English managers especially.

    I’ve seen a fair few comments about Remy becoming “the new Cisse”. If you are going to deny that, then you are in denial and don’t follow much social media.

    Also, “boy” (I’m 31 so don’t appreciate being called a boy).

    If us losing to Morecambe (which we deserved to) meant that Pardew got the sack then and we got a decent European manager in – then yes, I’d go back in time and make it happen for the greater good in future years.

    We will go nothing but stale under Pardew.

    Now, if you don’t mind I’d rather converse with people on the blog that I actually have time for. Because any more time spent conversing with you is really a serious waste of my time.

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  25. ST I would prefer to keep hold of Cisse but only if he is given the chance , and recently that doesnt look like happening as Pards seems to prefer to put Strolla on who for me is totally useless as a striker as he doesnt score goals.
    But the problem is who would pay good money for a striker that isnt getting played to show what he can do ❓

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  26. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25609826
    They’ve won their last 8 games against us.
    Scored 92 goals in 31 games this season!!
    Away form is much, much poorer than their home though. Really think we should attempt to go at them.
    Guy Mowbray’s manager of the first half of the PL season was Pardew 😯 What an idiot ❗ ❗ Does he not realise we are Newcastle United and should be fighting for fourth regardless of the players we have!

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  27. Big Dave – reckon that is why he is being linked to Qatar. Can’t see any English club (except QPR) willing to pay Cisse’s wages for an out of form striker, in addition to whatever transfer fee Ashley demands.

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  28. JJ
    “He received the majority of long balls”. True.
    But he isn’t “being played as a target man”, as we haven’t been playing hoofball this season.
    So the few long balls we have played have inevitably been aimed at him. To tar Pardew with the long ball brush at all this season is unfair and wrong so put your toys back in your pram and stop your bitching – he has done well this season (so far).

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  29. Ok Stuart. If we sell Cisse and spend the money on a player that has gone totally off the boil on loan. A player who until a couple weeks ago, no one had heard of for 10million and a player that has never been prolific in a poor league. Just to satisfy the masses. Then I’m sure you’ll be pleased. If you think we’ll buy three players by selling Cisse for 10 million you must be on drugs mate. Then you are living in a dream land, just like somebody who doesn’t believe Shola is played as a target man.

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