Newcastle travel to Eastlands tomorrow evening, looking to record their second consecutive win at the Etihad Stadium, yet their first victory in East Manchester since the 2000/01 season, where Alan Shearer claimed the winner at Maine Road.
Despite their deserved victory over the reigning champions last October, Newcastle’s chances of repeating that result look incredibly bleak. Since Newcastle’s return to the Premier League, The Magpies have failed to record a point against The Citizens, scoring 4 goals in 9 games. Compared to City’s 22 in the same period, City look to be on another level.
Team news:
Yaya Toure has returned victorious from the African Cup of Nations, looking to add to his 5 goals against Newcastle in his last 6 appearances. Also returning & looking to debut is Wilfried Bony, the £25 million pound signing from Swansea has also been away with Yaya on international duty. Former mag James Milner is set to miss out, but Sergio Aguero looks to come over a minor back problem. However, Aguero may be rested ahead of their Champions League against European elites Barcelona.
Newcastle’s defensive crisis continues to expand, with Full-back come centre-half Paul Dummett all but ruled out for the rest of the season. BBC Sport are also reporting of Remy Cabella being a doubt for the clash. Cheick Tiote has also returned, but will miss this & the next few games through injury. The injury to Sammy Ameobi that made him miss the match v Crystal Palace hasn’t been addressed as to how long he’ll be missing for, so could make a surprise return tomorrow.
Carver has claimed Newcastle will head to Manchester tomorrow ‘with a game plan’, which doesn’t involve ‘simply parking the bus’. Considering City’s vastly superior firepower & Newcastle’s leaky defence, it’d be difficult to look past anything further than a similar performance from Newcastle to last October, in which they sat-back for most parts & broke on the counter.
Clash to watch: Kompany v Cisse
Given that City haven’t kept a clean sheet for 8 matches, Carver will look to expose this hint of vulnerability, with Vincent Kompany playing off-form. Papiss Cisse currently has the best minute / goal ratio in the Premier League, so the Senegalese striker should hopefully be an intimidating presence for the out of sorts Kompany & Martin Demichelis.
