|
| Home | This Season | Reserves | Academy | Womens | Squad | Stadium | History | Tickets | Gallery | Downloads | Toon Shirts | Forum |
|
Match Preview By Ally
Campbell (8 November 2005)
He’s clinging on though, and who better to play than the mighty Gunners? The focus needs to shift away from Souness however, and on to the match ahead, with winning this the main priority. We need to be united behind the team on Saturday, tension spreads and the players certainly reflected how we felt last week in their performance.
Injuries/suspensions Where do we start? At the time of writing Souness said that both Owen and Taylor will both be back for this game, having backed down from original claims that Dyer would also be fit. However it appears Taylor has aggravated his shoulder injury and yesterday reports claimed that Owen would miss this one. Although he is now back in the squad it would seem. Whether he actually plays or not, remains to be seen. I personally wouldn’t put money on it. I guess we’ll just have to see on Saturday. Elsewhere, Moore, Carr, Emre and N’Zogbia are all out injured, and Babayaro sits out the third game of his suspension. United squad: Given, Harper, Ramage, Elliott, Boumsong, Bramble, Parker, Faye, Bowyer, Solano, Luque, Clark, Brittain, Shearer, Owen, Ameobi, Chopra. Arsenal are without Reyes, Cole, Clichy and Bergkamp remains a doubt for the match. Arsenal Squad: TBC...
How should we approach this game? Arsenal’s away form has been terrible this season, and the 2-0 defeat to Bolton last week adds to Wenger’s misery. As ever, teams usually end their dodgy records against us, but hopefully Arsenal can keep it up for another week. They’ve got their own injury problems, with left back a certain concern. The awful Cygan has played there recently and looked poor on TV against Bolton, they’ve not got many other options so hopefully he’ll play. Solano will have to pick up his form and exploit this weakness. He’s not been great since his return to the club, but we all know what he can do. Just stick on the right Nobby and attack their defence, he’s barely crossed the ball all season so we need some of that for Shearer. I imagine Luque will play on the left wing rather than Ameobi. He needs to play regularly to prove himself, and against one of the best teams in the country the motivation is certainly there. From what I’ve seen in Spain he’s better up front, but hopefully he’ll do a good job out wide. Just give him the ball rather than hoofing it to Shearer and we’ll be ok. This is either the best or the worst time to face Arsenal. They’ve already qualified for the latter stages of the Champions League, so their best players will be fresh for Sunday after a rest midweek against Ajax and they’ll be wanting to try and close the gap at the top. So another defeat would be disastrous for them, and I’m sure Wenger has been telling them that all week. We’ve got injury problems, but if there’s a good atmosphere like there usually is for this game, and we get a bit physical with them we just might succeed. They don’t like to be ruffled, and a midfield two of either Parker and Faye or Parker and Bowyer will certainly do that.
Key Players Newcastle: For Newcastle I’d say Scott Parker is pretty key to this game. He’s been great all season and in the first match against Arsenal he was absolutely immense. With a midfield of Gilberto and Fabregas its certainly not the strongest in the world, and a physical battle often sees them on the losing side. Parker has that tenacity in his game and hopefully he can get a foothold in midfield. Arsenal: For Arsenal it has to be Thierry Henry. For me, he’s the best player in the Premiership and can score out of nothing. Boumsong has done well in the past against him, and he’ll have to get out of this awful form to stand a chance against his fellow Frenchman. Even if Arsenal are poor, Henry is still a massive threat. It’ll be a tough day for the centre backs.
VerdictIt’ll be a hard game for sure, and as I said the pressure really is on Souness. My head says we don’t stand much chance as we’ve been utterly awful recently, but my heart just says that in typical NUFC style we’ll be crap against the average teams and step up a gear against the big guns. Sod realism, I’m going for a 2-1 win for us. Howay the lads!
Likely Lineup
Pre-Match Reaction: Graeme Souness
"He's just about as good as there is. I know he had a difficult time in Italian football, but since he has been in England he has been an absolute star and on his day he is unstoppable. "He's got pace, he's powerful. He's the complete football player. "No-one likes playing at Bolton. They are strong at home. You know how they are going to play, it's strong, in your face football and it's hard to play against. "You have to make sure you are totally switched on for that type of football from start to finish. "I'm not going to reveal how we intend to play against Arsenal, but we will be going for it in a sensible way. "Arsenal on their day are as good as anyone around. "In my opinion, they're certainly the best to watch. Away from home this year they have not had the results they are used to getting, but at home they have been particularly strong. "It's on our patch, and we have to get after them. "But we have to be sensible because of the players they have up front, obviously Thierry Henry, they are a threat on the counter. "That is something you have to be very aware of when you are playing Arsenal. "We want to go after Arsenal in a very positive way. We need to defend properly, and if we have Michael in the team then he could be the diffence on the day."
"It's difficult to explain our away form this season, just as it's difficult to explain why our Champions League form is better."
Newcastle Vs Arsenal Head To Head
|
|
Contact
| Write
For Us | About
Us | Advertise
| Privacy
| Newsnow
| Copyright
| Site
Map | We
Support | Top
|
Match Preview: Newcastle United Vs Arsenal 
