Pre-match narrative
After claiming its first Premier League victory of the season, Newcastle United hops on a plane down to the English capital to square off against Spurs at White Hart Lane on Sunday. The Magpies secured their first victory of the season against Leicester, with the lone goal coming from Newcastle zombie, Gabby Obertan. Can Alan Pardew use a speech like this to get his side streaking?
Tottenham has won only three of its last ten contests, but walloped Irrelevant Greek Team FC 5-1 in the Europa League on Thursday. If you haven't seen it by now, Érik Lamela did one thing in that match that's almost certainly more entertaining than anything you'll see tomorrow.
Tomorrow's match is the first of three tricky fixtures in a row for Newcastle. However, one of those is against Manchester City in the Capital One Cup, which we know the club couldn't possibly care less about, and wouldn't even bother to field a team for if it didn't have to. Still, it means there are plenty of chances for whatever momentum the Magpies have built up to be halted.
Team we want/team we'll get
An injury bug means Pardew's choices tomorrow will be pretty limited...and so will mine. Both Papiss Cissé and Emmanuel Rivière could miss out, as could Mike Williamson and Cheick Tioté. So the formation isn't dictated by tactics as much as it is by which eleven bodies Pardew can shove onto the pitch. If I had my way, Obertan would start from the left, where he's generally been more effective (see last week's goal and his stellar display against Bordeaux in the Europa League two seasons ago), and Yoan Gouffran would get a chance in his preferred position up front. But we all know that the manager doesn't bow to facts and logic, so expect the 4-3-2-1, and players in the wrong roles, once again.
How Pardew will screw this up
The three points from last season’s 1-0 victory against Spurs are a credit to both Tim Krul and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. The Dutch goaltender made an absurd 14 saves to keep Tottenham out of the net, and needed a fantastic goal line clearance from the center back (yes, Pardew briefly gave in to reason and started Yanga-Mbiwa in his natural position) to preserve the points.
In that match, Pardew employed his “rope-a-dope” strategy, which he used to stifle José Mourinho's Chelsea the week before. (Seriously! He briefly looked like a competent manager at one point last season.) But Tottenham was not nearly as inhibited by the defensive shell, and it took a heroic effort from our goalkeeper to earn the points. If Pardew goes with the same approach against Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs, Newcastle will have no chance of leaving the Lane with any points. Tottenham has too much attacking talent, and despite last week’s result, the Magpies are still not a good defensive side.
Pochettino put out a strong XI in the Europa League win, so Newcastle will have an energy advantage against its opponents. It should go out and attack a side who hasn’t scored more than one goal in the Premier League in a month. But, of course, it won't.
Predicted Chronicle headline
Pochettino lines his sides up to push high and attack, and this side is no different. While the attacking talent at Tottenham’s disposal, there will be chances for Newcastle to create an attack. When Spurs push up the field, there will be plenty of space behind the fullback for Obertan to attack (another weird sentence to write). Unfortunately, Pardew will set up Newcastle to defend too deep and for too long in the match, which will ultimately end in defeat. The headline after our 2-1 loss will be:
Narrow defeat in the nation’s capital
Two straight wins, and the next match is against a deflated Liverpool side at home. Exciting times have returned to Tyneside, if just for a week.
Posted by: Mr. Sterling | 10/26/2014 at 09:18 PM