Match Preview - QPR vs. Newcastle United - Sky Sports Monday Night Football

(P.S. - I am a Newcastle United fan, so as always my match previews are bias); All eyes will be on the outspoken and always controversial Joey Barton tonight as he makes his Queens Park Rangers debut against his former club Newcastle United, the team he publicly claimed he loved and never wanted to leave, in what is being setup to be a fiery Premier League contest screened live tonight on Sky Sports Monday Night Football at 8pm. As ever, we can expect Joey Barton to take centre stage and it will be interesting to hear what kind of reaction the Newcastle supporters give the twitter philosopher. The midfield terrier, despite his inconsistent performances throughout his tenure in the North East, was much loved by the Toon fans for his spirited attitude on the pitch and their natural tendency will be to give him some kind of reaction, either cheering or booing and heckling relentlessly, but both could be potentially damaging to their own team tonight as Barton is a player who thrives on audience interaction that makes him perform. Plus, paying him too much attention will take the focus away from their own team who need to be focused on picking up three points tonight in what appears (because of the circumstances) to be a tricky fixture, but is nevertheless still a newly promoted side who were thumped 4-0 by Bolton Wanderers on the opening day of the season, and on paper at least is one of the away fixtures The Geordies must fancy their chances in winning. Therefore my advice would be just to ignore him like he is any other player because Barton always needs a reason to care to make a difference on the field. Newcastle go into tonight's game on the back of their best start in the league since the 1995-1996 season under Kevin Keegan and incidentally was the last campaign they won at Loftus Road with former Hoops & Magpie forward Les Ferdinand scoring in a 3-2 victory. But they do so tonight still without a number 9, manager Alan Pardew publicly admitting Mike Ashley and the board's failures to secure any of their forward targets before the transfer window closed and he must now hope the likes of Leon Best, Shola Ameobi and Peter Lovenkrands can carry the burden of hitting the back of the net this season better than they did in the first five months without Andy Carroll and that Demba Ba can stop sulking and start performing. Seemingly the 'Best' bet for Newcastle this campaign might indeed be Leon Best who has a good goalscoring record from the past nine months with 8 strikes in 13 games, and he most recently bagged two goals, including one terrific finish in the home victory against Fulham and he may soon claim the spot of being the club's first choice striker. It's not yet clear who will partner Best up front tonight with Shola Ameobi now back in training from an injury that kept him out last time round but he may not be ready and with Pardew already having some doubts about just who he has bought in Demba Ba, so I would guess it will be Lovenkrands who once again gets the nod despite never being an out and out striker in his career. Newcastle's Jose Enrique left back replacement - Serie A and Champions League winner Davide Santon is reported to actually be on the bench tonight with Pardew probably thinking it's going to be a dirty, fast flowing game and doesn't want to immediately throw him into the wolves. Free kick master Ryan Taylor is likely to stay at left back with the back four of Taylor, Coloccini and Simpson staying in tact and the midfield four of Jonas Guttierez on the left, Tiote & Cabaye in the middle, and the pacey and forward thinking Gabriel Obertan on the right. Definitely out for the visitors tonight are Mike Williamson (ankle), Harris Vuckic (hand injury picked up last time out) and Hatem Ben Arfa, though the latter is back in training and likely for at least bench contention against Blackburn Rovers at St. James' Park on the 24th. Danny Guthrie and James Perch will be fighting out for bench places tonight having found themselves stuck in the reserves recently, but with Alan Smith, Santon, Sylvain Marveaux, Dan Gosling and whichever strikers don't make the first 11 likely to have those spots nailed down, I think they may be out of luck tonight. Tim Krul, after his outstanding performance against Fulham last week, will continue in goal with new signing Rob Elliott on the bench as Steve Harper hasn't quite recovered from injury. For QPR, a team who did manage to make a flurry of signings at the end of the transfer window, could introduce a further five other new players after Barton to their line-up, all with Premier League experience - former England right back Luke Young, the often dangerous Shaun Wright-Phillips, Arsenal reject Armand Traore, Alan Pardew favourite Jason Puncheon and Anton Ferdinand, the former Mackem who if he plays, his second outing against Newcastle after starting the 1-0 defeat derby defeat with his former club. Definitely out for them are Rob Hulse (knee), Jamie Mackie (foot) and ex-mags Bradley Orr, Kieron Dyer (foot) and Peter Ramage who has gone on loan to Crystal Palace. Though former Newcastle loan defender Fitz Hall could play have featured in all QPR's league games this season. The big threat for QPR is the freewheelin' Adel Taarabat who is basically the player all of the R's attacks come from and certainly last season it was all about getting the ball to the skillfull attacker and letting him do the rest. He scored more than half of their goals overall in the Championship and now with some added quality behind him will be looking to flourish tonight. The latest odds for tonight's game come courtesy of Mobile Sports Betting: QPR - 6/4 Draw - 23/10 Newcastle - 9/4 Prediction 1-1 draw... but it'll be a feisty affair with bookings aplenty and the promise of what Joey Barton might do makes the game unmissable!