A new year; a new era. Hopefully. After a destitute 2014 sprinkled with few nuggets of gold, excepting that one unusually long vein of it that threatened to signify a change in fortune, Alan Pardew looks set to take the reins at Palace. John Carver takes temporary charge of a Newcastle side that welcomes in the New Year and Sean Dyche with his Burnley side, fresh from a night on the Bigg Market, at 3pm.
If you were to take the results of Premier League matches played in 2014 and create a table based on them, filtering out the relegated/promoted teams, as the BBC have kindly done so, Newcastle would sit in 14th place out of the 17 remaining teams on 42 points; three above Aston Villa, double that over West Brom, and double again over Hull City. Relegation battle form, and that’s despite our five win streak earlier this season, which makes up almost half of our 12 wins, going along with 6 draws and a staggering 20 losses.
Despite being separated by almost half the table, with Newcastle 10th and Burnley 19th, the two sides have been in similar form over a tough string of festive fixtures, with only a two point difference between them over the past six games. This difference stems from us getting a win over Everton in our last match, while Burnley earned a hard-fought draw from 0-2 down against Man City.
A win for Newcastle can take us to 8th at best, anything else and Stoke have the chance to knock us back down to the bottom half, while giving Burnley their ticket out of the relegation zone.
Pardew’s imminent, or recent, depending on when it’s finalised, departure sees Carver take the role of caretaker manager at Newcastle for the second time; the previous stint came a decade ago and lasted one game, a 3-0 win over Blackburn following the sacking of Sir Bobby Robson. Souness came in, Carver went out and showed up at Leeds the following year, and another year on found himself again a caretaker, winning his first match before suffering a number of heavy losses and being replaced by Newcastle favourites Dennis Wise and Gus Poyet.
He has experience as a full-time manager, lasting just over a year at Toronto, the worst side in the MLS. More recently, Carver got some practice on the touchline following the infamous headpush earlier this year, the resulting seven game ban for Pardew seeing Carver take his match duties for a dire run of games.
Carver will have fellow coach Steve Stone as his assistant, while Peter Beardsley has been temporarily called up from his under-21 duties to help out, and, at least for now, Andy Woodman continues to watch over our collection of injured keepers.
A full transcript of Carver’s pre-match press conference can be found here, and it should come as no surprise that he talks up his closeness with the departing Pardew, considering the incident in September where he called fans demanding Pardew’s head “f***ing c***s”.
Team News
Carver has only had two days to prepare for this game amid what he describes as “carnage”, and will have an eye on the cup game against Leicester on Saturday, so with regards to selection or tactics we’re unlikely to see any major deviations from whatever Pardew would have done.
Jonás Gutiérrez’s return from cancer to match fitness seems to be on track as he has completed at least two non-competitive matches since his return to Tyneside, and perhaps he’ll be in line for a sub appearance or a return against Leicester. Fellow long-term absentee Davide Santon hasn’t been as fortunate, however, as he took a knock to his ankle in an under-21s match, which could delay his return.
Sammy Ameobi’s status, after having missed the Everton match with a knee injury, is unknown. Mehdi Abeid continues to struggle to return to fitness, and at this point even Algeria are concerned and have expanded their preliminary squad accordingly. Ryan Taylor is hoping to return this month, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be ready for this one. Rolando Aarons, Siem de Jong, Rob Elliot, Tim Krul, and Gabriel Obertan are all still out.
Papiss Cissé is suspended for three games as a result of retrospective punishment for his elbow against Everton’s Coleman last time out, but he was expected to not feature in this one anyway as Senegalese preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations start in Dakar the day after this match. Cheik Tioté is available as the Ivory Coast do not start their training camp until the 5th.
Burnley only have a few injury worries; Matt Taylor faces a late fitness test, while Michael Duff and Stephen Ward are expected to miss out.
Predicted Line-up
If you were to take the results of Premier League matches played in 2014 and create a table based on them, filtering out the relegated/promoted teams, as the BBC have kindly done so, Newcastle would sit in 14th place out of the 17 remaining teams on 42 points; three above Aston Villa, double that over West Brom, and double again over Hull City. Relegation battle form, and that’s despite our five win streak earlier this season, which makes up almost half of our 12 wins, going along with 6 draws and a staggering 20 losses.
Despite being separated by almost half the table, with Newcastle 10th and Burnley 19th, the two sides have been in similar form over a tough string of festive fixtures, with only a two point difference between them over the past six games. This difference stems from us getting a win over Everton in our last match, while Burnley earned a hard-fought draw from 0-2 down against Man City.
A win for Newcastle can take us to 8th at best, anything else and Stoke have the chance to knock us back down to the bottom half, while giving Burnley their ticket out of the relegation zone.
Pardew’s imminent, or recent, depending on when it’s finalised, departure sees Carver take the role of caretaker manager at Newcastle for the second time; the previous stint came a decade ago and lasted one game, a 3-0 win over Blackburn following the sacking of Sir Bobby Robson. Souness came in, Carver went out and showed up at Leeds the following year, and another year on found himself again a caretaker, winning his first match before suffering a number of heavy losses and being replaced by Newcastle favourites Dennis Wise and Gus Poyet.
He has experience as a full-time manager, lasting just over a year at Toronto, the worst side in the MLS. More recently, Carver got some practice on the touchline following the infamous headpush earlier this year, the resulting seven game ban for Pardew seeing Carver take his match duties for a dire run of games.
Carver will have fellow coach Steve Stone as his assistant, while Peter Beardsley has been temporarily called up from his under-21 duties to help out, and, at least for now, Andy Woodman continues to watch over our collection of injured keepers.
A full transcript of Carver’s pre-match press conference can be found here, and it should come as no surprise that he talks up his closeness with the departing Pardew, considering the incident in September where he called fans demanding Pardew’s head “f***ing c***s”.
Team News
Carver has only had two days to prepare for this game amid what he describes as “carnage”, and will have an eye on the cup game against Leicester on Saturday, so with regards to selection or tactics we’re unlikely to see any major deviations from whatever Pardew would have done.
Jonás Gutiérrez’s return from cancer to match fitness seems to be on track as he has completed at least two non-competitive matches since his return to Tyneside, and perhaps he’ll be in line for a sub appearance or a return against Leicester. Fellow long-term absentee Davide Santon hasn’t been as fortunate, however, as he took a knock to his ankle in an under-21s match, which could delay his return.
Sammy Ameobi’s status, after having missed the Everton match with a knee injury, is unknown. Mehdi Abeid continues to struggle to return to fitness, and at this point even Algeria are concerned and have expanded their preliminary squad accordingly. Ryan Taylor is hoping to return this month, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be ready for this one. Rolando Aarons, Siem de Jong, Rob Elliot, Tim Krul, and Gabriel Obertan are all still out.
Papiss Cissé is suspended for three games as a result of retrospective punishment for his elbow against Everton’s Coleman last time out, but he was expected to not feature in this one anyway as Senegalese preparations for the Africa Cup of Nations start in Dakar the day after this match. Cheik Tioté is available as the Ivory Coast do not start their training camp until the 5th.
Burnley only have a few injury worries; Matt Taylor faces a late fitness test, while Michael Duff and Stephen Ward are expected to miss out.
<alnwick>
<janmaat> <saylor> <colo> <dummett>
<tiote> <colback>
<cabella> <sissoko> <ameobi>
<perez>
<janmaat> <saylor> <colo> <dummett>
<tiote> <colback>
<cabella> <sissoko> <ameobi>
<perez>
Perhaps I’m being optimistic, but I’d like to think that Pardew’s diminished influence will spare us from Gouffran on the wing, with our attacking coach hopefully favouring Cabella's intelligence and directness. The rest of the team is made-up of the usual preferred available players in their usual roles.
Prediction
It’s a new year, so I guess I’ll try a bit of positivity. Our players will be rejuvenated by Pardew’s departure and eager to make their mark and stake their claims to their place in the side, be it for Carver or whoever succeeds him and looks back at our recent matches. We’ll take the game to Burnley, score a goal in the first ten minutes, and get another before half-time. Second half Burnley will come out firing and get a goal, but we’ll score our third to wrap things up… from a corner. 3-1.
Where to Watch/Listen
This match is not televised live in the UK. Tickets are still available as of writing, and the match day box office will be open from 9am until kick-off selling tickets starting from £28 for adults, £23 for seniors, £16 for students/18-21s, and £14 for children. Local commentary, as always, is on BBC Newcastle, with talkSPORT covering the game overseas.
Prediction
It’s a new year, so I guess I’ll try a bit of positivity. Our players will be rejuvenated by Pardew’s departure and eager to make their mark and stake their claims to their place in the side, be it for Carver or whoever succeeds him and looks back at our recent matches. We’ll take the game to Burnley, score a goal in the first ten minutes, and get another before half-time. Second half Burnley will come out firing and get a goal, but we’ll score our third to wrap things up… from a corner. 3-1.
Where to Watch/Listen
This match is not televised live in the UK. Tickets are still available as of writing, and the match day box office will be open from 9am until kick-off selling tickets starting from £28 for adults, £23 for seniors, £16 for students/18-21s, and £14 for children. Local commentary, as always, is on BBC Newcastle, with talkSPORT covering the game overseas.
we didn't like Pardew because he was a southerner, Pardew did an 'absolutely fantastic job', the next manager must be a Geordie or we'll not take to him, and we're lucky to be a mid-table club because we should be getting relegated with the squad we have. Oh, and Stoke are a hundred times better than us.
