Hatem Ben Arfa is in the starting eleven tonight for Newcastle, and it seems that all players injured against Wigan are now fit and start in the side.
Ben Arfa was passed fit as were Davide Santon, Cheick Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez and Demba Ba and they all start tonight, in what is Newcastle’s strongest side – apart from the injured Yohan Cabaye and Steven Taylor.
And Steve Harper is on the bench tonight, for the first time in a long while, and the bench is strong with Shola Ameobi, the in-form Sylvain Marveaux, James Perch and youngsters James Tavernier, Gael Bigirimana and Shane Ferguson all names as substitutes.
But no place for Nile Ranger, with Shola being fit again and Sammy Ameobi is also missing tonight.
For Fulham former Newcastle winger Damien Duff is in the starting line-up.
Newcastle will be going all out for three points tonight.
Howay The Lads!!
Teams:
Fulham (4-4-2): Mark Schwarzer; Sascha Riether, Brede Hangeland (c), Aaron Hughes, John Arne Riise; Damien Duff, Steve Sidwell, Chris Baird, Alex Kacaniklic; Dimitar Berbatov, Hugo Rodallega
Substitutes: Neil Etheridge, Philippe Senderos, Giorgos Karagounis, Mahamadou Diarra, Kieran Richardson, Ashkan Dejagah, Mladen Petric
Newcastle United: (4-2-3-1): Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Davide Santon; Cheick Tiote, Vurnon Anita; Papiss Cisse, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jonas Gutierrez; Demba Ba
Substitutes: Steve Harper, James Tavernier, Shane Ferguson, James Perch, Gael Bigirimana, Sylvain Marveaux, Shola Ameobi
Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire)
668 comments so far
Papiss9
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:00 PM
Comment #641@lordjoesnow
“guti had a great game” what game were you wathing????
LGFUAD21
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:00 PM
Comment #642Shola did more than Ba and cisse in his cameo. Had Ba had his wits about him Shola headed on 3 balls he could have got on.
I’m calling it we need to play Shola and Obertan up front.
HBA Blood Twister
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:00 PM
Comment #643Shame on the “Pards out” lot. I’m assuming you’re all kids and don’t know what it’s like to have a team of players who don’t care about the club.
These players do and I for one don’t want to go back to having a different manager every six months. You are the fans that make this club a laughing stock.
BTW HBA has been injured – not fully fit, that’s why he was taken off.
nick_9
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:01 PM
Comment #644Shola did squat diddly, he gave away freekicks and had waht one measly shot
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:01 PM
Comment #645Manager is in no way out of his depth, he was let down by poor individual performances, HBA was clearly losing his legs and can we quit calling for Marv to be a cert starter, he had one good game against Wigan, one swallow doesn’t make a summer, Guti didn’t play badly
lordjoesnow
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Comment #646Ruddy Marveaux-lous said it best.
Big Pappa Cissé
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Comment #647Bring on City eh.
Pardew out
mickybraham
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:02 PM
Comment #648Class performance tonight I thought, Anita class, benny class, santon class! So many positives from that! Support the team don’t winge!
LargeSadMenace
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:04 PM
Comment #649Catchy
How exactly am i missing the point? Very few posters who have criticised Guti on here have said it’s anything to do with the position he is in. this may be your opinion, I may even agree, but it’s not what others have said but rather just all out attacked him as a player and for me, needlessly singling out one of our own players is not the traditional Geordie mentality.
toonking
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:04 PM
Comment #650largesadmenace
the is only one way we can be proved wrong and that is dropping jonas and starting marvo because until that happens we will never know the truth as HBA is much more decent than jonas and marvo does create chances
Big Pappa Cissé
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:05 PM
Comment #651@ Ruddy
Marv’s one good game against Wigan is a hell of a lot more than Gutierrez has done all season
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:05 PM
Comment #652Santon class?
In what sense? Because it surely wasn’t from a defensive point of view. He was awful defensively. Even going forward he lacked creativity.
kelykos
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:06 PM
Comment #653We have far too much liabilities for Premier League football, so many avoidable mistakes which are more or less costly.
Plenty of time we got caught due to an easy ball given away cheaply. Players are either not focused or not at the right level.
They need to react because it becomes really worrying. We did better in after the second goals but we have a manager with strange tactics. Ameobi for Ben Arfa, seriously ? Why not Marveaux who can’t create space, and can cross? Gutierrez looked really tired he could have been substituted instead of Anita.
But generally speaking, really disappointed by the first half.
Rotonda heights
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Comment #654Thank god for Benny.
I think without his individual brilliance and a huge amount of luck last season this would have happened a lot sooner.
Every team has found us out, banning open training sessions is a joke because Pardew only has one tactic.
he’s never going to be a Mourinho with a plan A, B and C.
Believe if he stays there is a very good chance we ‘re gone. Just ask West Ham and Charlton fans
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:07 PM
Comment #655Big Pappa Cisse
Guti has worked hard this season, and worked hard this evening too. He may lack a little in an attacking sense but he was one of the few players who rarely gave the ball away and worked hard to win the ball when we lost it.
He was nowhere near one of the worst players on the field from a NUFC perspective.
Ketsbaia9
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:08 PM
Comment #656Has Danny Simpson ever made an assist? Every
time he gets the balls, he whips it in the box without thinking.
The commentators have said that Debuchy is about to sign. Hopefully they’re right.
Coloccini was very good going forward today but was at fault for their second goal. Williamson was at fault for the first one.
Nufc-83
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:08 PM
Comment #657People saying class performance good performance etc where do you think we should be finishing in the league? If your happy with 15th then a 2 1 loss away to fulham is a good showing. Expected about 8th at start of season and to do that you can’t be happy with loss or any performance this season.
LargeSadMenace
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:09 PM
Comment #658toonking
By all means replace Guti with marv, this would be a worthwhile experiment. i would keep benny on the right though as I feel he is more of a threat cutting inside to shoot. But I don’t believe it will prove or justify the abuse Guti has recieved on this blog of late. In fact, it makes me sick that keyboard warriors come on here and abuse one of our own, call me old-fashioned but soon as a player pulls on the black and white they deserve the respect and pride of every Geordie. The ‘digital booers’ on here are probably the same as those who boo at the final whistle at SJP, shame on you.
ONLINE GUY
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:11 PM
Comment #659First thing a new manager would do with this NEWCASTLE side would be to …..
Drop Guitti… Guitti just needs a rest and a change of posistion when he comes back.
Bring Marvo in from the start ..Replace Williamson ….Get rid of SHOLA AMEOBI
And only play Sammy for the last 10 mins of games if we are winning 3-0 this to see if he Grow’s because he is no more a prem league footballer than my Jack Russell.
Who else can I drop ..? who’s a contender ? Simpson ‘s Heart is not really in it ..He seems to be protecting himself from any hard tackle or effort. He is scared to pick up an injury that might ruin his big payday free transfer ,,He does give about 75% in a game but when He has to get really stuck in he’s more of a watcher..keeps clear of any possible hard stuff like a tackle or two .
Shola Is a joke of a footballer really ..and we should have started with Marvo,
We played ok ..but where is the Leader on the pitch ?
Ketsbaia9
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:11 PM
Comment #660That was about our best performance so far this season.
shpetmeister
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:13 PM
Comment #661Perch in for simpson, oberan inn for guti and ffs get harper inn for williamson!
keeganjr
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:14 PM
Comment #662where are we on 1jan??? look at that program, omg
Ketsbaia9
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:14 PM
Comment #663Shola is good at conceding free-kicks. Gutierrez has lost it. Williamson and Simpson are suicidal defenders., the rest are alright. Cisse is a decent player, but isn’t playing well at the moment. This is why we need strength in depth. Someone like Remy or Mauro Zarate.
YOY_Yorkshire
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:18 PM
Comment #664Hey folks… some positives but also significant negatives … better crosses tonight in the second half from which no one was challenging (the keeper shouldn’t be gathering balls at his feet unchallenged from perfectly good crosses …. our strikers lacked anticipation as well as communication). Tactics including substitutions again a problem… putting Stanton with HBA first half, taking off HBA and replacing with Stroller… first half our passing was poor , too many hoofs not only are our long balls poor we appear not to get the second ball. Defensively inept at times esp Santon -position- willo-just not enough quality- and Simmo-enough said on here. Collo also lacked guile at times and not for the first time this season was to blame in part for one if not both goals. Positives… Anita, HBA, Ba and Cisse. Krul was immense.
Toonacious T
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:23 PM
Comment #665First of all, it is ridiculous to assert that any of our players should be beyond criticism, they are being paid alot of money and fans have a right to expect a premiership standard of both effort and competence. Secondly, there are people on here who seem to think these negative observations will magicly transmit themselves to our players.We are on this blog, we are not at the match, the players are not reading this blog. Blind faith is going to lead to accepting mediocrity as the norm. We are going backwards….fast. You can put all the positive spin on it you like, the league table tells it’s own story.
LeedsMag
Dec 10, 2012 at 10:50 PM
Comment #666Positives out of tonight – anita,pace energy and plays with his head up.Negatives too many to mention but the main ,perversely was the much improved performance in the 2nd half – it gives Pardew all the opportunities he needs to go on about bad luck,not getting the breaks etc etc,all of which deflect away from the real issues in front of his nose.
I dont think all the players have suddenly become bad players but there doesnt seem to be a collective fight to win the 1st or the second balls or the ability to impose ourselves on a game.The players dont seem to have a plan they believe in – not on the same wavelength when passing,no closing down, too many tackles lost – Christ we even made Berbatov look like Norman Hunter.
Fed up of seeing teams run straight through us – totally depressed -cant see 3 worse teams than us in the EPL
LargeSadMenace
Dec 10, 2012 at 11:15 PM
Comment #667Toonacious
See my post at 631. i don’t believe players, managers or club owners are or should be beyond criticism but only that focusing all criticism on one individual is cruel, ignorant and pointless. I am far from blindly faithful, quite the opposite, but it is futile and regressive to focus all blame on one or two individual players when much more powerful and influential individuals make much more vital and damaging mistakes, much more consistently at the top level of our football club.
davis_toons
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:47 AM
Comment #668Infact: We can even replace Cisse with many other players like Shane Ferguson or Gael Bigirimana playing 5 midfield to create a goal.