Newcastle v Arsenal – Carling Cup match preview.
Posted on October 27th, 2010 | 97 Comments |
Newcastle beat Chelsea in their own back yard a few weeks back to get this far, and they have been rewarded with a tough tie against another top team in this round.
Arsenal have been accused of devaluing the Carling Cup over the years as Arsene Wenger has tended to stick with his youth players and use the competition to give them some match experience. Early signs suggest that Wenger is eyeing the Carling Cup as a chance to and a five-year trophyless run (boo-hoo eh!) which could mean that he is willing to risk more first-team players than he would normally.
As for Newcastle, well I would say that we can expect a mix of youth, experience and fringe players to feature for us tonight with some first-team players on the bench ready to come on and try to make an impact if it is needed.
Shane Ferguson, Haris Vuckic, Tamas Kadar and Nile Ranger all look set to start the match this evening whilst Alan Smith and Danny Guthrie look likely to be paired in the centre of midfield together. The goalkeeper position provides a different dilemma for us as Chris Hughton has to decide whether to risk Tim Krul and give him some more match experience or whether to start with Ole Soderberg instead and keep Krul safe for the derby on Sunday. With all that in mind I wouldn’t mind seeing a team of;
Newcastle – Ole Soderberg, Ryan Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Tamas Kadar, Shane Ferguson, Wayne Routledge, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith, Peter Lovenkrands, Haris Vuckic, Nile Ranger.
As mentioned earlier, Arsene Wenger is expected to name a stronger side than he usually would for this match as he looks to give some match time to a host of first-team players who are just returning from injury. Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott and Laurent Koscielny all look likely to feature at some point aswell as highly-rated youngsters such as Carlos Vela and Henri Lansbury.
Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-0 at the weekend and played a team of;
Arsenal – Lukasz Fabianski, Bacary Sagna, Sebastien Squillaci, Johann Djourou, Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Denilson, Alexandre Song, Andrei Arshavin, Marouane Chamakh.
The head-to-head stats don’t make good reading for Newcastle fans. Arsenal have won all three previous League Cup encounters between the two sides and Newcastle haven’t beaten The Gunners in any cup competition since way back in 1952. In fact, Newcastle have won only one of the last 19 meetings between the two sides.
I can’t see those stats changing tonight, although our team does possess the ability to come up with the odd surprise in fairness. If we win and go through to the next round then great. If we lose and go out of the cup then fair enough, as long as we pick up no injuries to what is already a threadbare squad in the process. Avoiding extra-time would also be a bonus in my book aswell.
My prediction: Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal.
Howay the lads!
Date – Wednesday, 27th October, 2010.
Kick-off – 7:45pm.
Venue – St James’ Park, Newcastle.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
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