When the FA Cup draw was made last night, I’m sure I joined just about every Newcastle fan in praying for a home draw.
I leapt up with excitement when number 4 came out first, confirming a rare cup quarter-final at St James’ Park, but my excitement soon turned to despair when Chris Waddle pulled the holders Manchester City out of the hat seconds later!
That being said, the timing of their upcoming trip to St James’ Park is far from ideal for Pep Guardiola, with our game coming bang in between a Champions League second leg tie with Real Madrid and Premier League clash with Liverpool.
This isn’t the only time they’ll have to play a few times in a week over the next month either, with them set to play Manchester United on Sunday and Arsenal next Wednesday, forcing Guardiola to seriously manage his player’s minutes over the next fortnight.
Here’s their upcoming fixtures, with them set to play 5 games in the next 16 days – opposed to our 3:
- Man Utd (A) – Sunday 8th March
- Arsenal (H) – Wednesday 11th March
- Burnley (H) – Saturday 14th March
- Real Madrid (H) Tuesday 17th March
- Newcastle (A) Saturday 21st March OR Sunday 22nd March
Fixture lists aside, we’ve given as good as we’ve got in recent meetings with Man City on Tyneside, drawing 2-2 earlier this season and beating them last year.
In our last 4 meetings at St James’ Park we’ve won once, drawn twice and lost once.
With St James’ Park set to be rocking and a place in a semi-final at Wembley on the line, let’s hope we can be equally competitive this time around!
