Newcastle Beat QPR 2 Years Ago To Stay Up - But How Do They Rate Vs The Current Team?

2. THEN: Papiss Cisse - NOW: Emmanuel Riviere

Papiss Cisse has been banging goals in left, right and centre this season - netting 11 in the Premier League - so many Toon supporters have forgotten the long struggle the Senegalese striker had in front of goal for an extended period. That period coincided with the end of the 2012-13 season (and almost all of 2013-14 for that matter...). Alan Pardew's managerial masterstroke was to play Cisse as a right-winger to please Demba Ba - who he then sold to Chelsea in January 2013. This knocked Cisse's confidence, and the forward managed just eight goals in 36 Premier League appearances that season - and very few during the run-in.

Thankfully Cisse could find the target from time to time even when he was at his worst, but that simply hasn't been the case for Emmanuel Riviere. The Frenchman's £6 million move from Monaco has been nothing short of a disaster - and he has not netted a single goal in 17 Premier League appearances. Cisse is only fit enough for the bench against QPR this weekend, which is frustrating - he may have been poor at Loftus Road two years ago, but he offers far more than Riviere does in front of goal. Verdict: Cisse by a country mile, 1-0. Even though Cisse wasn't in any sort of form two years ago, he knew how to score in a Newcastle shirt when it really mattered - something Riviere has certainly not mastered yet...