Norwich City v Newcastle United - Match Preview
Newcastle Uniteds defence, who looked somewhat impenetrable early on in the season, now look uncomfortable and injury-ravaged ahead of their trip to Carrow Road to face Paul Lamberts Norwich City. The Canaries themselves already have a weak defence along with Blackburn they are the only side yet to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League. Pretty woeful stuff, but with the Magpies threadbare back four, we can hope for a few goals in tomorrows game. The two teams have a few things in common theyre both in the east of England (east and northeast that is), they both start with the letter N of course, and perhaps most importantly, they were both hammered in their last league games. Alan Pardews men took a 3-0 beating against Chelsea that was unbelievably unlucky, not least because David Luiz should have been dismissed for pulling down Demba Ba when he was the last defender. Lamberts side were convincingly beaten 5-1 at the weekend, but you have to make allowances when their opponents were the freakishly good Manchester City, and we can only hope that both sides will be aching to bounce back from disappointing results. The hosts sit in 11th place and the visitors are placed 6th. If your saliva glands werent already warming at the prospect of goals, Alan Pardew spoke in the lead up to the game thusly
'I'll never change from the philosophy that my teams have to be on the front foot wherever we play, and that has served us well.The Magpies have a good if not overly impressive 19 goals so far this season. Paul Lamberts was as effusive in praise of tomorrows opponents as he seems to be regardless of who the Canaries are playing:
They have done fantastically well. They havent lost many games. Alan has done terrifically well up there when you consider the expectancy level of that club. I say it every week but this is another tough one.Remotely interesting. Team News:Norwich City: Zak Whitbread has been hoping to return to first team action for a while now dont want to get any Canaries fans hopes up but he may be fit to play. James Vaughan is warming the physios table as usual, and defensive duo Elliot Ward and Ritchie de Lait are out. Newcastle United: Steven Taylor is likely to be out for a while and Mike Williamson is also injured. In addition to this, Fabricio Coloccini is a major doubt. The midfield isnt looking all that solid either with Cheick Tiote and Danny Guthrie likely to miss out, but Jonas Gutierrez returns from suspension. Possible line ups:Norwich City (4-4-2): Ruddy, Naughton, Martin, Barnett, Tierney, Bennett, Johnson, Fox, Pilkington, Morison, Jackson Newcastle United (4-4-2): Krul, Simpson, Perch, Kádar, R Taylor; Obertan, Cabaye, Gutiérrez, Ben Arfa; Ba, Sh Ameobi My prediction: With two leaky defences (bar the posibility of some very quick gelling from an unfamiliar Magpies back four) and Newcastles inability to beat newly promoted sides on the road, Im going to go for a 2-2 draw.