Newcastle v Manchester City – Premier League match preview

The proper United v City
The proper United v City
Well I’ve loafed about all summer, been on holiday in Turkey, spent some time in Barcelona, gained a promotion (sort of!) at work, but now it’s back to it as the Premier League returns to St James’ Park.

In terms of assignments things don’t get much tougher than a match against Manchester City. Whilst United have been on a relative spending (reinvestment) spree over the summer, it is a completely insignificant amount when you compare it to what the Etihad outfit have spent in recent transfer windows. In fact one player this summer for them equates to roughly what we’ve spent during this transfer window!

It’s true we’ve bought well, or at least we seem to have, but the reality is that all of those signings are going to have to hit the ground running if we are to thrive this season. They’ll need time to adjust and whilst some have performed well in pre-season the fact remains that the Premier League is a completely different animal to what many of these new signing have experienced before.

Newcastle:

Siem De Jong will not make his Premier League debut for the Magpies as he misses out courtesy of a calf strain. Cheik Tiote (hamstring) will join him as will longer term absentees Davide Santon and Papiss Cisse. Hatem Ben Arfa would appear to still be exiled from the team whilst Jonas Gutierrez, despite possessing a squad number, has played less minutes in pre-season than Gabriel Obertan so is unlikely to feature.

Debuts are likely be handed to Jack Colback, Remy Cabella, Daryl Janmaat and Emmanuel Riviere.

Manchester City:

Alvaro Negredo is injured and will miss the match while new £32m signing Eliaquim Mangala won’t feature. Sergio Aguero is also likely to miss out through a lack of match fitness. Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Fernandinho, Martin Demichelis, Frank Lampard and Bacary Sagna all missed the Community Shield last weekend but are likely to be included in varying capacities tomorrow.

Previously…

What can you say about previous meetings between the two sides apart from that they haven’t been very good for us? We lost all three games against them last season (two league and one cup) conceding eight goals and scoring none.

In fact you have to go back nearly nine years to find our last victory over the Citizens, with Michael Owen scoring the winning goal on that occasion.

Historically we have been the stronger side though winning 66 of 161 matches compared to 59 victories for City. At St James’ Park we’ve won 50 of the 82 games played between the two sides.

Stats and facts:

Newcastle have failed to score in their opening game in three of their four seasons since returning to the top flight.

Remy Cabella, who has joined from Montpellier, had more touches in the opposition half (2019) than any other player in Ligue 1 last season.

Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 15 Premier League matches (16 in all competitions) against Newcastle. They’ve won the last 10 games on the spin aswell.

The most debutants in a Premier League match for United has been five. Technically, although unlikely, Newcastle could beat that by giving debuts to Remy Cabella, Emmanuel Riviere, Facundo Ferreyra, Jack Colback, Daryl Janmaat, Ayoze Perez and Rolando Aaarons.

See what I mean that it’s unlikely…

Final thought…

Again this is one of those dead rubber games that I fear will end in defeat which will suck the early season excitement out of things. That’s just my opinion however so we’ll see.

On the other hand, we’ve got to play City and all the rest of the teams at some point so why not start off by playing one of the top sides in the division in our first game of the season? We’re at home so you just never never know, we might surprise a few people.

Howay the lads!

Date: Sunday, 17th August, 2014

Time: 4pm

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.

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

  1. Alreet Toonsy.

    I think it will be 1-1 tomorrow as hopefully we will catch them a bit off their game with it being first of the season.

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  2. If we can keep it to 4 or less, I’ll be happy. This is one of those games to just get out the way without a hammering or injuries. We won’t get anything from it.

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  3. Shame Shearer is again saying it’s sad the club prioritises the league over the cups…comments like that make out thst it’s a problem with NUFC. It’s not! It’s a problem with Premier League football.

    These days the PL is too much about money…

    But us fans are the same we always were! We’re all excited for tomorrow and we really want to beat Gillingham! I’m really excited to see the new players in a competitive game finally…

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  4. TDS I totally agree with you. I would like to see Newcastle win anything in my lifetime and that doesn’t mean the championship or intertoto cup.

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  5. I just want to see these new players. As long as we play well and don’t get stuffed then I’ll be happy

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  6. Agree, lets get it over and done with then we have 7 PL games we should be more than capable of winning. I suspect our season will really start next Saturday.

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  7. TERRY

    Exactly. But sadly the cups don’t mean so much for many owners…yet to us they mean more each year we go without winning one!

    If we could just win one, it would really take a lot of pressure off!

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  8. Is it on Sky or BT Sport? Want to plan how to watch it after I play my tennis match…

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  9. TDS – Sky buddy. Program starts at 15:30.But Liverpool would have just played so expect 25 minutes of masterbation ovee them and five mins of build up 😆

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  10. didn’t we win that cup in New Zealand ?
    Really, all the toon fans do is whinge 😆 :lol

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  11. Good to have you back Toonsy 😉
    As for today I just hope City dont make us look silly and we can give them a decent game. It will be good to see how a few of our newer players get on in a real game.

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  12. 3-1 to City as they won’t be firing on all cylinders yet. As long as we give a decent account of ourselves like Palace did yesterday at the Arsenal. Spoke to my daughter last night who is going to the game today with 4 uni friends. For her friends this is their first Toon game, so they’re going for the full experience bought a shirt, drinks in the Strawberry etc. She said they’re all really excited and can’t wait for Sunday. I remember how that felt.

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  13. Good to be back in a discussion where you don’t have to scan through all the reposts moaning about the manager or Ben Arfa to get to anything on topic! Welcome back, Toonsy!
    Excited to see what our new team can do in terms of attack and there’s always the tantalising possibility of an upset. But mainly I’m looking forward to getting back to sitting in the pub sitting at the telly with some mates. 🙂

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  14. Well here comes the late nights and very early mornings again.. let the sleep deprivation begin! :mrgreen:

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  15. I fear too many new faces in the toon team, which perhaps haven’t quite gelled yet. Real pity that Tiote and De Jong are both missing ..
    Hope for a draw, with a good performance to keep the whingers at bay, but Man City have too many heavyweights and will be a real test..

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  16. I’m not sure how we approach today. I’m am, as always worried about our defence. We conceded so many goals last season and it’s basically the same defence – so that’s a big, big concern.

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  17. we do indeed need to start well, some good players signed but we could of done with a decent centerhalf as our defence is almost unchanged. We concede too many and look vulnerable.

    Squad looks stronger although its a shame whats happening to Barfa, not sure if his attitude is right. Not many wingers succeed under Pardew, hopefully Aaarons won’t be Pardewed

    On paper our strikers look ok, whether they’ll be a success is another thing. Hopefully Cisse comes back hungry.

    2-1 to City.

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  18. Stuart79, with the combination of our weak defence, weakened midfield and untried front line, we’ll be in for a tough day I reckon.

    Not looking forward to the usual blather of the Sky commentators and all there superlatives of how magnificent Man City are …

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  19. I wonder whether Pellegrininwill shake Pardew’s hand, after all Pardew gave the lad a really nice welcome the last time he was in the toon for a league game 🙂

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  20. Eminem, I see you are still living the happy clappy life.. you’ve changed! 😯 😆

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  21. AMF ….too much dodgy Aussie beer mate :-), brings out the happy clappy in me 🙂

    Pardew out !!

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  22. 😆 there are a couple of nice aussie beers mate… however most are mass consumption based swill.. next time you are out this way, I will point them out so that you will have an even happier clappier experience! 😉

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  23. Can’t believe the negativity this idiot manager of ours projects.

    Can you imagine playing for this guy.

    He is making excuses for poor performances before a ball is kicked.

    Any decent manager would say, we got nothing to lose in this fixture and we are going out there to give it our all.

    Not “I expect a slow start”

    How do you support a manager like this?

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  24. JJ, if you think Pardew is bad, you should see our defence…. and don’t get me started about our strike force! 😛

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  25. JJ, Pardew is just playing down expectations mate. Do you think he says the same thing to the mdia as he does to the players ? 🙄

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  26. JJ Pardew’s comments are a bit like Troy’s posts on the blog, just skirt past them mate 🙂

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  27. MM
    When you look at his team set up yes. It’s just as negative.

    Also posses me off when he say “If I’m honest”

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  28. Loving the Roar badge (avatar) your grandkids drew up for you Vegas. Cute stuff! 😆

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  29. Bris, stick with the logo that your grandkids drew up with mate 🙂

    No doubting where your allegiances lie mate, glory hunter !!

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  30. AMF, I was just in Melbourne for a good while, and Man City have bought out the poorer of the two poor Melbourne sides. Do you think there was any sign of this amongst the locals ? Naff all mate, Melbourne aint no soccer city, too many Aussie Rules teams kicking about 🙂

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  31. Eminem.. the Melbourne derby games go off… the Melbourne locals love their sport mate, you visited in the off season and mid AFL season so there is not a lot of A League talk goung on… you are right about Vegas tho 😆 😛

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  32. Expect to get beaten today but would like us to try and play some decent attacking football rather than just sit back and defend – sadly that will be Pards tactics today

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  33. AMF no doubting that Melbourne is a FANTASTIC sport city, I just wasn’t convinced of the footy side of things… even having signed David Vila and stuff, they’ll probably still have to sit tight with attendances of 12,000 ?

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  34. The new Melbourne City will be doing well to get 12K, that’ll be about a 50% increase on last year.

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  35. It’s the toons first game of the season man!!! – what the hells all this craic about Aussie football?!.

    Nervous and excited about today like. I really think we can get a draw from this one – if the players are set up right and up for it.
    I think we will defo concede, but could nick a goal so 1-1 for me 😛

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  36. I think if we are organised and do what Palace did to Arsenal yesterday we could catch them out in first game of the season but it would require 90+ minutes of concentration and a real team effort. 😕

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  37. Not long now to find out if our defensive frailties of last season still linger. Expecting a loss just hope it isn’t a heavy one.

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  38. MM
    I want Ben Arfa to start. I pay my season ticket money to see footballers not donkeys

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  39. Kim I felt sorry for Palace. Conceeding goals at the end of each half was really frustrating. There’s talk of them getting Zaha back again, would be a good addition for them.
    Back to us, will be a sad start with the minutes silence for John and Liam. Hopefully it’s a good reminder to our tosspot owner and manager, as well as the merceneray players that they will come and go but Newcastle United will remain the spiritual property of the supporters. Sir Bobby has two new friends to talk footie with.

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  40. HWTL

    First game of the season, buzzed as usual!

    Been away, out of even mobile coverage, but am just hoping to see some decent effort today, some promise from Cabella, Rivière, Janmaat. Nowt, points-wise, then get started versus Villa. Top-50 points for the season, finish 8th or 9th. If we get another CF and swap STaylor for a better backup CB that can get better…

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  41. Aussie 😛

    Toby – do you pay your season ticket money to watch lazy footballers waste there talent?. But today is the first day of the season, so I’m not having another Benny arguement today. Today is about the lads on the pitch and getting behind them.
    Sissoko to score today I reckon, but I’d be happier if Cabella notched.

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  42. Deb, Totally agree, it should bring home how important the fans are and how important the club is to all of us. The team should today of all days play to honour john and liam and all the loyal fans.

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  43. I would love to see

    Chelsea lose,
    Man Utd Lose
    Liverpool lose
    Man city lose later

    Then NUFC top! 😆 😆

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  44. #NUFC v @MCFC (4-2-3-1): Krul; Janmaat, Williamson, Coloccini (c), Dummett; Anita, Colback; Sissoko, Cabella, Gouffran; Riviere. #NEWMCI

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  45. Good to see Obertan on bench…

    Lastly, for the first time ever… No shola anymore…

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  46. I actually can understand Dummett starting…

    We don’t have anyone good enough covering LB…. 🙄

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  47. @Sharpy

    Sissoko is the biggest wet drip we’ve had for ages. The size of the bloke and plays like a fairy.

    If he scores I’ll show my **** in Fenwicks window. Unless it’s a deflection 😛

    Today is the day that the Clueless Crew understand what I’ve been saying for weeks.

    I’m sticking my hard earned impeccable football guru name on the line.

    Sadly, the inadequacies of our team will shine through like a beacon.

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