Date: Wednesday, October 30 Venue: St James' Park Kick-Off: 19:45 Can Newcastle and Manchester City get their respective seasons back on track with much-needed wins in tonight's fourth round Capital One Cup clash?
Team News
Newcastle will welcome Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa back into the fold after the defender served out his one-match suspension against Sunderland at the weekend. Steven Taylor is sidelined following a recurrence of his hamstring injury, but Massadio Haidara is fit again. This match will come too soon for captain Fabricio Coloccini, who may make it for the Chelsea game at the weekend, while Jonas Gutierrez remains in his native Argentina for undisclosed personal reasons. Manchester City will likely be without Vincent Kompany, who is still struggling with a thigh problem, while Joe Hart is set to be dropped in favour of Costel Pantilimon. (nufc.com)
Key Stats
The last time these two sides met, Manchester City prevailed 4-0 on the opening weekend of the Premier League. City have won the last eight meetings and are unbeaten in 14 (W12, D2) since Newcastle won 1-0 at home in the Premier League in September 2005. Newcastle are vying to reach the fifth round of this competition for the first time since 2006. This is the fourth meeting of these clubs in the League Cup - Manchester City won 2-1 in the 1976 final and also progressed from their fourth-round tie in 1994 after a replay. (bbc)
Both Newcastle and Manchester City will still be hurting from those bruising defeats to key rivals at the weekend. The Magpies went down against old foes Sunderland while City will feel aggrieved to have lost against Chelsea in quite the manner they did. Both sides will be looking to get their seasons back on track here, and getting your name into a quarter-final draw of a cup competition isn't a bad way of doing so. Newcastle and City have already met once this season, with the Citizens prevailing in a thumping 4-0 win at the Etihad, and Alan Pardew's side will be hoping to avenge that defeat tonight. Pardew insists the League Cup is a priority for his side this season, and views it as a realistic opportunity of winning a rare piece of silverware. But to begin seriously dreaming of Wembley glory, he will first have to overcome an opponent who are unbeaten against his side since September 2005. I'm going for an away win, with City to be too strong for their opponents. Prediction 0-2
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
