BEN ARFA'S TIME TO SHINE

It's astonishing, really. Newcastle United enters today's game at Manchester City third in the Premier League table and its most gifted player has been a total non-factor so far this season.

Hatem Ben Arfa has understandably drawn headlines in the buildup to today's match, seeing as how he'll be returning to the scene of a career-threatening injury and potentially playing against the Dutch thug who inflicted said injury. But the fact is he's been nothing more than a fringe player for Newcastle so far.

That will have to change if United has any shot at maintaining its strong start to the season. With Sylvain Marveaux headed stateside for surgery (looks like my co-blogger was right), Gabriel Obertan battling a toe infection and Leon Best slowed by a groin injury, Newcastle is worringly thin in the attack at the moment. And to compete with Man City, Man United and Chelsea, you need matchwinners. Ben Arfa has that ability, even against the best teams in the world. I don't know that the same can be said about anyone else on United's roster.

Alan Pardew's biggest challenge is figuring out where to fit Ben Arfa into Newcastle's lineup. Pardew has shown a preference for the traditional English 4-4-2 throughout his 11 months in charge, but that formation is dependent on wing play. And, seeing as how Pardew has repeatedly said he wants to play Ben Arfa exclusively through the middle, United's only healthy starting-caliber winger at the moment is Jonas Gutierrez (yes, Sammy Ameobi looks promising, but playing a full 90 minutes is a completely different animal than coming on as an impact sub - just ask Nile Ranger).

Pardew could shoe horn a central midfielder into a right wing role - Danny Guthrie and Dan Gosling would be options, although Guthrie has repeatedly shown that his best position is in the middle - and play Ben Arfa up top with Demba Ba. Or he could be really bold and change formations. That's what I'd like to see.

Man City has been superb this season and is finally playing with a style going forward that lives up to its spending (errr, deficit spending, I guess we should say). But Roberto Mancini's team doesn't play with much width. So if Pardew has any designs on using a more narrow 4-3-3, this would seem to be the ideal time to do so.

However Pardew decides to line his team up, though, Ben Arfa needs to be included. Because if he remains a non-factor, Newcastle won't be third in the table for much longer.

Comments

[M]

very encouraging performance from Benny today. That was pretty much the 'Everton-vintage' BenArfa that we all know and love

In fact, very encouraging performance all round - Ba started slowly in a slightly different position but improved as the game went on. Sammy proved that he's ready to start in the Prem if needed. The 2 CB's were outstanding as ever

today was a reminder tho.... we do really need to upgrade at both FB positions