Can Alan Pardew lead his Newcastle side to four straight wins and three in the Premier League? Can Mario Balotelli find his feet? Will Fabio Borini continue his frankly annoying knack of scoring against Newcastle every time he plays? All these questions and more face Newcastle and Liverpool fans as their teams face off at St. James' Park for the still too-early 12.45 kick-off in front of BT Sports' cameras. Newcastle are in their best form of the season - some might say despite the influence of the manager - and are seeing their manager proclaimed a genius by people who have very little real sense of the world. The wins absolutely are not to be undermined, but the desperate win against newly promoted Leicester, a good second half against a snoozing Spurs side and an unlikely (unwanted?) victory with kids over an embarrassed Man City is hardly the mark of genius. If he picks the right team, plays the right way and overcomes Liverpool though, things will be different, and opinions might have to be at least a little re-thought. The City result has lead to questions over who should get the nod to play and who deserves to, but it's hard to imagine anything but the expected line-up (perhaps with Rolando Aarons as a wildcard if he's fit enough) despite Pardew's mind-game claims that Brendan Rodgers will not know his team. Liverpool meanwhile are stuttering, currently sitting in 7th and a massive 9 points off leaders Chelsea already, when their summer of spending should have meant they're sitting up at the top of the league. Rodgers has so far been somewhat protected by the loss of Luis Suarez, but his replacements have failed to score enough in the absence of Daniel Sturridge. This game usually inspires Liverpool to score - after all, Liverpool's first game without Luis Suarez after his first biting transgression was a 6-0 thumping of the Magpies at St. James' - and this could be their chance to change things.
