After what initially looked like a very minor injury, Pardew has now come out and said Cabaye could be out until January, so Newcastle will be without Coloccini and Cabaye in the spine of their team. Without Coloccini their defence can be very suspect, without Cabaye they don't have that centre-mid that can unlock a defence. Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa are still dangerous, but whenever they have been without those two key players in the spine of their team, Newcastle have not been the team they were at times last season. Anyone else really fancying us for this game now? Newcastle on a horrible run without two of their best players, us coming off of our best back-to-back performances of the season and hopefully high on confidence. Before hand this was a 'bonus points' kind of games, now we might be able to target this as a very realistic three points.
Now all we need is for Ba, Ben Arfa and Cisse to get injured in a training ground incident and we'll be sorted!
But we're playing at home and they're playing away so I'm not sure that's stat's any good for Sunday!
Just need news on Jonas now then. Hopefully he too will still be injured. And they've still got a Europa League game to try and negotiate injury-free yet.
Very true. Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa get all headlines but I really believe Coloccini, Cabaye and Tiote are the driving force of the team, and I've got a few Newcastle supporting mates who will tell you similar. There are few that can put the ball in the back of the net like Ba and Cisse, but they need the service and Cisse is having a bad run right now as well. Ben Arfa can produce individual brilliance, but intermittently. By no means does Newcastle missing Coloccini and Cabaye make them a terrible team, but it makes them a very beatable team, at the very least a much more beatable team. Doesn't guarantee us an easy win, but certainly makes them a far less fearsome unit as a team in my opinion, especially with us at home and them low on confidence and us high. And as Brendy points out, they of course have a Europa league game on Thursday too so there will be a degree of squad-juggling and fatigue.
Come on Joe, it's "fewer". I thought you were educated As for Cabaye, great news for sure, he's a very good player. Tioté will be trouble though, Mulumbu gave our midfield a real physical test (which they failed) and Tioté is in a similar mould.
That is a good point, you do have to worry. Think Tiote is less prone to marauding forwards though, and hopefully with Cork in there rather than the much more diminutive Davis we can handle those kinds of players better.
Ha ha - now, now lads ! I feel that never mind who Newcastle do or dont field Saints are capable of beating them at home this w/e. Over the past couple of games since Mulumbu got the better of our midfield, Saints have improved as a team and Jack Cork has made a heck of a difference in there + their confidence has been recharged. Newcastles form has conversely dipped.
This could be the first time ever we have beaten sides with a player called Cisse in consecutive games.
According to fantasy football, Jonas will be injured, no that theyre ever correct. I think we will seriously give them a game now, Cabaye runs the show for them whilst Tiote stays back to null counters. He wont be able to stop our movement alone. I think Ben Arfa will be nulled like we did to Granero or Taraabt against QPR, theyre only game changers when given the space. Cork and Morg do not allow space, we press very hard.
Reading through some of the Newcastle board, they seem almost as down as the QPR boys before Saturday. Pardew taking a lot of flak from coming away from the free-flowing 4-3-3 of last year to a 4-4-2 based around hoofing it up to Ba and Cisse. Maybe after a nasty patch of playing teams like Arsenal, Everton and WBA at their peaks, we're starting to play some teams at favourable times. That would be nice.
I'm not sure that our pressing is quite as hard as you say. There has been talk of us being a little too nice. I think you're right to compare Ben Arfa to Taarabt, but he's like a much better version of Taarabt. Schneiderlin will have to be at his best to keep him quiet, but his recent form is very promising. The most promising thing is that Ben Arfa can't do it all by himself (probably). He's playing behind two strikers who have been pretty average of late, and so even if he plays really well, they could still struggle getting the ball into the net.
