Howay you beauties. Well as luck would have it... the fixture computer in its infinite wisdom drew us up against the defending champions for our opening Premier League game. It must have been in a charitable mood as this time it dictated that they come up to the North East; rather than us trodding down to their place for our usual hiding. We haven't beaten City in a long time.... the last time being before they were bought by a Sheikh, funny that eh? I've been staring at an Excel Spreadsheet for many hours but I can't spot the correllation. Last time we played this lot at home we were denied a goal from Tiote by a spectacularly incorrect offside decision, oh yeah and our manager called the opposing manager a c*nt. Speaking of that; Pardew has demanded professionalism from Hatem Ben Arfa, and it seems as though the mecurial Frenchman (am I doing my tabloid speak properly?) will be nowhere near the first team squad while Pardew is in charge. For those of us without grudges; the thought of HBA lining up on the opposite flank to Remy Cabella is something of a Geordie wet dream... Sadly it will not happen whilst Pardew is in charge. So of our new signings; 'kin hell we've actually made some! If that isn't enough to get you going... they're not bad either. Siem de Jong is apparently out for this one though - (not to be confused with Luuk his younger brother who seemingly won a competition to play for NUFC for the latter half of last season), Remy Cabella is expected to play and we expect great things from him. Tiote is out, and we're likely to play that ginger lad from down the road. Santon is out so it'll be between Haidara and Dummett for LB... I'm hoping Haidara as I don't know how good he is, I know how good Dummett is... Riviere is likely to be the sole front man up top - and it may be signs of age creeping up on me - but he reminds me of Sir Les from what I've seen of him in pre-season. Anyway enough of my waffling; Howay the lads and discuss.
Newcastle: Newcastle United (4-2-3-1): Tim Krul; Daryl Janmaat, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Paul Dummett; Vurnon Anita, Jack Colback; Moussa Sissoko, Remy Cabella, Yoan Gouffran; Emmanuel Riviere Bench: Rob Elliot, Massadio Haidara, Steven Taylor, Mehdi Abeid, Gabriel Obertan, Rolando Aarons, Ayoze Perez Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Joe Hart; Gael Clichy, Vincent Kompany (c), Martin Demichelis, Aleksandar Kolarov; Fernando, Yaya Toure; David Silva, Stevan Jovetic, Samir Nasr; Edin Dzeko Bench: Willy Caballero, Dedryck Boyata, Pablo Zabaleta, Fernandinho, James Milner, Jesus Navas, Sergio Aguero
I was not terribly disappointed with the result. Especially compared to last seasons debacle. We hit one of those chances in the second, we probably escape with a draw. Colo and Willo, OTOH, just make me cringe when they have to go up against teams that have great playmaking midfield s. Thx, Jay!