A third home game within the space of a week will see our attention turn towards the league campaign again after yet another disappointing and premature exit from a cup competition.
The problems is that this isn’t exactly the game you want when your team s low on confidence and seemingly devoid of ideas. Having said that, neither were Sheffield Wednesday in the end but with the greatest respect to the Owls – who fully deserved to beat us by the way – our next opponents are on a different level
The eternal optimist (yes, he is still there just) in me looks at arguably our best performances to date this season and notes that they’ve been against the top sides in the league so perhaps there could be a scope for an upset. The realist in me can unfortunately see nothing other than a defeat against Chelsea leaving us heading into our game against Manchester City (I know, the fun just goes on doesn’t it…) in a rather perilous state.
Newcastle:
Aleksandar Mitrovic has completed his three game suspension so will be available for selection. Daryl Janmaat, arguably our best player recently, has recovered from the illness which seen him withdrawn against Sheffield Wednesday but Papiss Cisse is out along with Steven Taylor, Paul Dummett, Cheik Tiote and Emanuel Riviere while Massadio Haidara, Jack Colback and Rolando Aarons are doubtful after failing to feature in midweek.
Chelsea:
Diego Costa is the only absentee for Jose Mourinho after being found guilty of an FA charge relating to his behaviour in the Arsenal game last weekend which means he will be banned for three games. Willian, Oscar and Pedro are all available after recent injuries.
Previously…
As you can imagine, this is a favour that generally hasn’t gone our way and indeed the head-to-head record is tipped fairly heavily in Chelsea’s direction although there is also a tendency for this to be a fixture that leans towards the home side (see stats below) in recent times.
Some 74 games have been played at St James’ Park with Newcastle winning 38 of those compared to only 18 wins for Chelsea. However the fact that we’ve been woeful at Stamford Bridge, like forever, means that in the 150 games to date in all competitions it is Chelsea who have won the most notching up 62 victories with United totting up 50 wins.
Stats and facts…
Newcastle have won the last three home fixtures against Chelsea. In fact the result has gone with the home side on each of the last six league matches.
If Newcastle fail to win it will match the seven game winless streak suffered at the start of last season.
Steve McClaren is currently in his worst run as a Premier League manager having failed to win in his last ten league outings (four with Middlesbrough and six with us).
Should Chelsea lose it would equal the clubs lowest ever Premier League points total after seven games. It would also be a fourth loss in seven league games which would equal the run of the 1978-79 where they were eventually relegated.
Jose Mourinho is yet to win at St James’ Park in five attempts.
Final thought…
These types of games are often thought of as scratch games – give it a go, expect nothing and maybe you might end up pleasantly surprised.
I can’t see that tomorrow however and think things are going to get worse before they get better. If they get better…
Howay the lads!
Date: Saturday, 26th September, 2015
Time: 17:30
Venue: St James’ Park
Newkie: we turn up against Mourinho’s Chelsea. We do not turn up against the other top teams. Here are recent results against Arsenal, latest first:
0-1
1-2
1-4
0-3
0-1
0-1
3-7
1-2
0-0
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy – yeah exactly. Perez and Mitro up front were exciting to watch, and showed what we have missed by playing Cisse up front. He’s scored amazing goals, absolute pearls out of nothing, but there is no sense of danger/excitement when he has the ball at his feet imo, not like when we had Remy playing for us. They linked up well and we could actually build attacks because the midfield were actually brought into the game. Mitro had a very mature performance after taking a few batterings and not reacting – if he can carry on then he should do fine, he just needs a bit more supply.
Perez’s goal was sublime and again, he is such a good footballer it’s criminal to have him on the bench.
Newkie(Quote)
interesting call that one to drop sissoko. that would really give him something to think about in the eurpean championship year…. may buck him up a bit cos he won,t want to lose his place in the french squad..
Munich Mag(Quote)
Eric – I know our record against Arsenal is ***** (although Hooters did get us our first away win against Arsenal is something like 13 years, so we didn’t even beat them in Highbury with Bobby apparently, and historically they have usually dicked us) but we’ve done well against several Chelsea managers, and we’ve generally put in good stints against Manure. They used to smash us every time they played us, Rooney especially, but in recent years it’s been much better. We seem to at least play better against them but for whatever reason, can’t be arsed to put in effort against lesser teams.
Players just putting themselves in the shop window?
Newkie(Quote)
It is Mourinho spin to take the attention away from Chelsea’s start. NUFC PL record against Man City:
0-5
0-2
0-2
0-4
0-4
1-3
0-2
1-3
1-3
1-2
That’s 10 losses in a row. I didn’t want to go back any further.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Newkie: we have had a couple of decent results against Man U, most notably the away win when Van Gaal had them confused. Before that I think it was a couple of decades since we had beat them at Old Trafford.
All I am saying is that Mourihno is twisting the facts to suit his purposes. Our results come against other mediocre and bad teams. You don’t get points for performances.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
MM: Sissoko has all of the commentators fooled. They always mention him as our best player and a shining light in an otherwise underperforming team. It is like they only see the surging runs he makes and forget that he scuffs the shot and final pass.
He is a fantastic fkin You Tube player. His highlights are great and make him look world class because he can run at pace with the ball at his feet. If you watch him every week though you see it rarely results in anything.
Perhaps he is being played out of position. Perhaps he is disinterested most weeks? I don’t know but it seems that there is a lot more there and we don’t get to see it.
I would give him the first half against Citeh. Maybe he will turn up as it will be globally televised.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
NUFC in last 10 games against Man U is not as bad as the others. Won 2, Drawn 3, Lost 5.
However, if you take the results against the top teams and extrapolated them to the rest of the League we would be relegated every year. Mourinho is spinning HIS bad record against us.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Don’t think the City game is on tv as it’s a 3pm ko on a saturday
kimtoon(Quote)
None of this is surprising as our average position over the past 10 years has been 12th. If you look at other teams that finished in similar positions, I bet their records against the top four would look very similar. Sorry to go on, I just do not agree with Mourinho here and people treat him like the Oracle when he says things for his own purpose. We have done well against Mourinho’s Chelsea and he wants to deflect attention from that.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
G2 is so spot on, giving Colocini a new contract was totally stupid. He has been very poor for two season’s now. Now Willo’s out the team you can defiantly see his our weakest defender. Krul should be captain anyway. His got more pride and passion about the club than Colocini ever has or had.
Terry(Quote)
Kimtoon: I keep forgetting they don’t show Saturday 3pm kickoffs in the UK. At least you will be able to listen to Phil Thompson and Merse giving their usual unbiased views on us.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – we’ve been **** against citeh even before they were moneybags. Feel free to keep quoting those stats at me, I feel our players pick and choose when they want to try and I feel much more disappointed in them against weaker sides, and that’s the feeling I’ve had for a few years now.
Newkie(Quote)
Colocini reminds me of an old Warren Barton. I don’t know if that’s an insult to Warren Barton being compared to Colocini but it’s getting to that stage now, he will only get worse not better.
Terry(Quote)
Eric – Moyes was manager then actually, and we had a 1-1 draw at OT a year or two previously with SAF. Oh, and we also beat them 3-0 under SAF.
I know what you’re saying, obviously the majority of points will come ther,e because there’s 15 **** teams and 5 good sides usually. However under Pardew we’d usually seem to get a shock result which would kick us into form so we’d actually keep playing well and beat the lesser sides. Not sure whether that’s down to the player or what.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie: you are right about Moyes being manager when we beat Man U at OT. It was just before they sacked him 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Newkie: we didn’t get shock results under Pardew against City and ****, but did get 1 under Pardew when we beat them 3-1. The 1-0 @ OT doesn’t count because that was Moyes 🙂
Whether we up or game for the top teams or not the results prove that we still usually get beat, except against Mourinho’s Chelsea.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Here you go then Newkie: I only quoted the last 9 games from **** and the game before was the 4-4 draw. So in the 30 previous games against Man U, Man City and **** we have garnered a total of 11 points. That is a total of 11 from 90. It is Carveresque and certainly not indicative of us upping our game.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Hatem Ben Ards two more goals tonight. The second a wonder goal. Contender for goal of the season. Why did we let him go again?
Toby Le Rhone(Quote)
Ben Arfa
Toby Le Rhone(Quote)
Eric – They are all sides we should fully expect to lose to on a regular basis, given the relative money spent and stature of players and managers. Stats can’t show what you see with your eyes. I’d say Pardew had one shock result against Arsenal, the 4-4 game being probably the biggest shock Arsenal have suffered in…….well, a bloody long time.
I’ve thought we’ve tended to improve against people like Liverpool as well, the odd whipping aside 😛
Toby – Because Cabella and Thauvin are way better mate. Or so i’m reliably informed.. 😉
Newkie(Quote)
Toby – because he was a lazy little ******
Sharpy17(Quote)
Newkie: I know I am stating the obvious by quoting stats that NUFC, a bang average team, usually get beat by good teams with more money. Also, the big teams have always said that bad and average teams up their games against them but it is usually to no avail. It is Mourinho’s manipulation of these facts that I am on about.
I am not sure that we play better against good teams and I have watched most of the games. Citeh destroy us most of the time and Arsenal usually only do what they need to and hardly get out of second gear. I admit we sometimes put up a bit of a fight against Man U.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Now that Cisse has his bad back and Tiote has his mystery injury, are they still involved in the team strategy sessions and training or do they just do rehab? There were rumours of bad attitudes, so are they away from the “group” now? Are the convenient injuries a way to ring fence the bad attitudes?
This is a serious question because I don’t know how it works when a player has an injury except we usually let them go back to France, Argentina or the Middle East which always puzzled me.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Gash @ 300 – I can understand what you’re saying about 1 trick pony mate. I think that’s mainly down to the fact we’ve only had 1 window under McClaren and they wanted to try and improve midfield & defence this window too. I think it’s pretty clear that Cisse is not in his long term plans, and to be honest, I think he’d probably put Riviere in ahead of Cisse if he were fit.
I’d be fairly certain though that CF is still one of the main areas they want to strengthen, and targets will be drawn up now for Jan & the summer.
Sharpy17(Quote)
@sharpy.
Hope so mate, still think we missed out not securing another striker.. & I bet we go after Austin for 6-8 mil, season wasted because we’ve saved a few mill. Hopefully Toney can make an impact as like you say, Cisse is looking to be away. Not sure about Rivi.
Gashley(Quote)
Gash – I’m sure all the papers will have us linked with Austin either way mate. I think you’re right though, we will go back and try to get him for a lot less – hopefully we aren’t still bottom 3 by then like.
If not Austin, I see us going back for that Lasoggo lad from Germany – don’t know much about him, but he’s another we’ve been linked with a lot.
I think young Toney could be our new Shola mate – that’s the feeling I get with him. Riviere is a difficult one to call coz he played ok but couldn’t hit a barn door. I always thought if he could get 1 or 2 then he would find his stride. He may benefit being played in a partnership too rather than lone striker though.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Toney is as green as grass and no where near ready to be anywhere near the first team. The fact he came on against Chelsea shows how poorly balanced out squad is.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – I think he was only there coz Riviere and Cisse (apparently) are both injured. He’s done ok, but you’re right, he was bought to develop through the ranks.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Must say I agree with Eric on Sissoko. Promises much, delivers little.
Groucho(Quote)
nice to see the players doing what they get paid for at the weekend.
more of the same for the rest of the season – or is that asking too much?
+ we had the added benefit of stevie mac trying to hold back on his daft grinning.
things are getting better!
roy cropper(Quote)
Newkie@304 – Bobby’s team did win at Highbury in 2001. 3-1 just before xmas.
georgio(Quote)
Good to see 3 of the 4 new signings coming to terms with PL life. We’ll get a lot more from them all as time goes on – Gini especially. Thauvin we’ll have to wait and see. However we still have only about 17 PL standard players so any injuries will have a huge effect. Any news on Colback? He put in a massive shift on Saturday.
georgio(Quote)
Georgio: what do you reckon about de Jong? I think he isn’t fit yet and he doesn’t rely on pace anyway but needs match practice. Kimtoon said a while ago that it takes a long time to get fit from a collapsed lung, like 9 months or more so i doubt he is fully fit yet.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric when you consider the strain these pro footballlefs put on their lungs, I’d say 9 months to get back to optimium level after that type of injury is pushing it. I do think he’s a good player with excellent positional awareness but given his track ‘record with injury I’m not convinced he will ever gather a long enough run up to sufficiently acclimate his lung fully to the rigours of the PL. The knock on effect being he never realises his potential with us. Fingers crossed for him but I reckon he’s our next Raylor…
Shamrock(Quote)
Eric – I’m pretty clear on De Jong. I think he’s fully fit now, at least he should be. He’s slow and awkward and just about the most unathletic player we’ve ever had. People tell me he gets into intelligent positions but I’ve never seen it. I have seen him score good goals in Holland though. He’s not one of the 17 of PL standard I mentioned earlier. He had 15 mins at Manu and didn’t touch the ball once.
georgio(Quote)
In my opinion Ayoze Mitrovic is the main strikeforce but de Jong would work well with Mitrovic upfront even if that means Ayoze switching right midfield and dropping Sissoko, or other option is Aarons for Sissoko. Personnally Id put Coloccini holding with Colback and give a chance to Lascelles with Mbemba as leading CB. Mbabu or Dummett LB but no Haidara.
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
If de Jong doesnt get better Id replace him by Vuckic and replace Cissé by Armstrong. And Id bring back Sammy Ameobi, sell Gouffran Obertan Riviere, and cash in for Cissé
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
Cash in for Sissoko, Tioté and sign a DM. The player we missed at OM was Mario Lemina, fine midfielder on loan at Juve. Colback and Lemine would a great engine midfield, with Wijnaldum and Aarons or Ameobi
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
I think it’s more important who we have at the club and how they are playing. Ben Arfa is done with us. It doesn’t matter how well he plays in France. The past is gone. What we need is focus and effort from the players we have. Was the Chelsea effort a one off or will we see more of it? Because we simply must get points against Norwich, mackems, Stoke, and Bournemouth after Man City. Crucial matches which might determine McLaren’s future with us. Look at all this serious blogging I’m doing lads.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Gosling is playing well for Bournemouth I see. Happy for him. He needed a fresh start and got it.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Does Bigi still have a future with us? I tend to doubt it now. He seems to have fallen into the same pit that Vuckic fell into a few years back. We seem to be expert at taking the skill and quality out of young players. The injury rates are ridiculous. Look at Good as well.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 @341: You said not to bother about Ben Arfa and then in the very next breath you are talking about another ex-player 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The same was true of Gosling when he was with us. And Marveaux always seems to have groin problems. And look at Saylor’s track record.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Good point Eric mate. I’m on a different tack now. I’m wondering why we destroy so many promising players, many of whom are still with us?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Anybody have any thoughts on why? I’ve heard the training ground theory but surely there is more to it than that?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Going back to those four matches, we must take at least 7 points from them or the season may be over before Christmas. Are we up to it?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Are the training staff up to it? Even now after changes have been made? I would hate to ruin some more good young players like Mbabu and Aarons.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Well, Ryder is saying we only try against the big clubs now so we know it must be rubbish. The truth is that we have been **** for a couple of years at least against big and small clubs alike. Were we really that much different in losing 6-0 to Liverpool and 4-0 to Man City than we were losing 3-0 to Sunderland? No, it suits the narrative of Jose at this moment and Ryder latches on to it because he has never had an original thought in his life.
Next Ryder will be saying that we should play 2 up front 🙂 Maybe have a target for Timmy’s hoofs and someone to feed off the knockdowns 🙂 Now that would be a novel plan.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am stuck on Sissoko. He seems to have the tools but then has no end product. I see people saying he is being played out of position on the wing and this is proven by how few goals and assists he gets. Then we move him inside when Colback goes off against Chelsea and he commits a bunch of fouls, looks lost and the team totally loses its shape. Is he any good, or does he just think he is?
I am not a Sissoko hater, I am just not seeing why he thinks he is such a big deal and why Steve said we could “build a team around him”. Steve now says we can build a team around Mitrovic and that seems more plausible to me.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am totally sick of this now. Don Hutchison is now saying we turn up for games against the big clubs and not the run of the mill clubs. Total *****. Some of our worst performances of the last few years have been against Man City and Arsenal may as well be having tea and biscuits when they play us to their usual 1-0 win.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I said it earlier, but we have 11 points from a possible 90 in our last 30 games against ****, Man U and Citeh. I wish some of these “journalists” and ex-players would look at the facts before fawning over Mourinho.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I can think of good games that we had against top 4 teams. The 3-0 win at home against Man U, the win against Liverpool when we were down to 10 men, the Chelsea game when we won 2-1 even when they had 27 shots on target and the other one where Cisse hit that wonder goal, the 4-4 against Arsenal. I can remember these games precisely because we usually do so badly against the top teams. I might be flogging a dead horse here but these pundits are wrong about us upping our game against big teams. We usually sit back and hope we don’t get a tonking.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Nobody else is on so I may as well continue on my rant 🙂 Will we turn up against Man City, we haven’t the last 10 times we played them? I have a suspicion we might this time if Mitrovic can bully their defenders. That is me hitting and hoping rather than going on the recent past though.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
How many of us go to a match, a pub or sit on the couch thinking – we are going to thrash Man U today? Usually, we look at that fixture with fear and trepidation. Is that consistent with us upping our game for the big teams? I submit M’lud that it isn’t.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t think we deliberately play better against the top teams, or at least that is not the only explanation. Over the last few years we have had quite a slow back line, who suit sitting back and having a bank of four/five infront. We have also had some forwards who suit counter attacking but struggle for quality to break a team down. In a game where the other team sit back and break on us, we have been hopeless. This is where we have missed the pace of Mbemba and the quality of De Jong, Perez etc. to break a team down who are sitting back. We are never going to be like Arsenal but we need to do a lot better.
DJG(Quote)
That we have had goo results against Mourinho’s Chelsea is an anomaly that he is using to cover up their recent form. I wouldn’t expect Ryder to understand that that is what Mourinho is doing here.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – you think beating them in their own back yard with our squaddies, and then taking them to extra time in the last two cup meetings between them is “Not turning up” ❓ 😕
Newkie(Quote)
DJG – Yeah agree with that, counter attacking has been our “strong point” for a while, well, if you can say we had strong points in the last two seasons.. 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie: I meant in the League when they take it seriously 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Newkie: have a look at the results against Man City. That tells you all you need to know. We played out of our skin one time in a league cup tie but we also didn’t get out of our own half in many of the PL games.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Newkie: I also refer you back to 11 points from 90 that I said earlier.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Did you know that “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is from a Broadway musical, Carousel, by Rogers and Hammerstein? Only puffs go to musicals so therefore all Liverpool fans are puffs.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric 😆 quiet Monday night eh? You said last 10 times we played, so I thought i’d throw those in because they are included…if you think Man City don’t want to win cups that’s up to you. They were happy enough to take it off Sunderland after a shaky start last year.
Like I said yesterday, Man City dicked us even before they had the ridiculous squad they do now, in recent years. They spanked 10 years ago with an over the hill Andy Cole leading the line ffs 😆
And yes, you quoted that stat yesterday. Very interesting. Except we’re not talking about points gained against the bigger clubs are we…please show me where I’ve said we’ve gained more points against better clubs than lesser ones?
Newkie(Quote)
Eric Sykes- Against City we never showed away from home except the first two years after promotion even if we loss and won last year in cup. At home we usually play well but lose against better sides, with no help from referees.
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
EricSykes- Man City is a mediocre team full of great players. Im confident that if we show up we can beat them.
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
Newkie: I wasn’t really saying anything against what you said. Just looked at Newsnow and everybody was jumping on the bandwagon of saying we up our game against good teams, which is not true. Even Ryder said it which made me question the whole reason for Mourinho’s existence 🙂
Yes, quiet Monday.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
At least Gerry and his Pacemaker was from Liverpool. The Mackems latch onto Prokofiev and Stadium of Light. I think I have said this before but that is about as lame as it gets, even for Mackems. There is nothing local that they can use????!!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sunderland is not Lisbon or Russia. If you type in “Stadium of Light” to google it comes up with the Mackem version because in Lisbon it is “Estadio da Luz”. So, I reckon the Mackem stadium must be the real one then 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Black cats 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
This is the most strained excuse for a nickname I have ever seen:
“Sunderland’s official nickname is The Black Cats. They also have other nicknames, such as The Rokerites, Roker Men, the Light Brigade, the Miners, the Sols and the Mackems. After leaving Roker Park for the Stadium of Light in 1997, the club decided that they would have a vote on the nickname to clarify the situation for the last time. The Black Cats nickname received the majority of the 11,000 votes beating off other suggestions such as the Light Brigade, the Miners, the Sols and the Mackems. There is a long historical link between black cats and Sunderland, including the “Black Cat Battery”, a battery gun based on the River wier. Around the early 1800s, the southern side of the River Wear contained four gun batteries, which guarded the river mouth during the Napoleonic wars. In 1805, the battery was manned by local militia, the Sunderland loyal volenteers one of whom was a cooper by trade named Joshua Dunn. He was said to have “fled from the howling of an approaching black cat, convinced by the influence of the full moon and a warming dram or two that it was the devil incarnate”. From that point onwards the John Paul Jones Battery was known as the Black Cat Battery. A Sunderland supporter, Billy Morris, took a black cat in his top pocket as a good luck charm to the 1937 FA Cup final in which Sunderland brought home the trophy for the first time. During the 1960s a black cat lived in Roker Park and was fed and watered by the football club.”
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – fair enough, I rarely visit any other sites now because of the melancholy or general insanity, and admittedly, Ryder jumping on the bandwagon significantly weakens my position because he’s a total cretin 😆
I’ve thought it for a while though, not just since Mourinho opened his gob.
Newkie(Quote)
Now let’s just think about that statement from @371 to come up with a lame arsed nickname:
“The Black Cats nickname received the majority of the 11,000 votes beating off other suggestions such as the Light Brigade, the Miners, the Sols and the Mackems.”
1. Black Cats was chosen for the spurious reasons stated above. The alternatives were:
2: Light Brigade: I assume because it was a reference to Stadium of Light which had no link to Sunderland anyway.
3. The Miners: I think there is is term “taking coals to Newcastle”. Taking coals to Sunderland?
4. The Sols: another reference to Stadium of Light which has no link to Sunderland whatsoever.
5. The Mackems: a derogatory term that they now seem to half embrace.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The 1st reason why we ruin youngsters(Tavernier, Vuckic, Ameobi, Abeid etc):
We dont give them a fair chance to succeed a prefer to sign average players like Gouffran Obertan or similar players who just dont make it: Siem de Jong, very similar to Vuckic but we never tried Vuckic in a proper role for a good run of games
Cholo A. Sall(Quote)
In the spirit of Billy Morris (@371) who took the black cat to the FA cup final in 1937 I am going to take a Rooster in my top pocket to the pub on Saturday when we play Man City. I would like my nickname from henceforth to be Eric “Big ****” Sykes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)