When Saturday comes

Tomorrow, in English football, the Unstoppable Force will contest a game with the Immovable Object. In times gone by, this would have been a clash between Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United and Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. This season though, Man Utd are still in transition and Andre Villas Boas’ Stamford Bridge are playing Keeganesque football – very attractive but far too open at the back.
No, instead it will be the revived Manchester City versus a resurgent Newcastle United, both boasting the last league unbeaten records this season in the top flight. The Magpie defence has been parsimonious in its operation, quite against type, with the meanest concession of goals in the country. Man City are no slouches in their rearguard either but their attack has been tearing up clubs around the country. Fulham have slowed them down with a draw but no-one has stopped them in the Premier League, from goals or points.
The corresponding fixture in 2010, saw an abysmal refereeing performance in favour of the home side in which the most grievous was when Hatem ben Arfa had his leg broken in two places by Nigel de Jong. The latter not only went unpunished when it should have been a straight red card but because the referee had ‘seen’ it (and had let play continue until a Newcastle player ‘committed’ a foul), retrospective punishment could not be applied. It took ben Arfa a year to recover from the injury and who knows if he will ever fully be the same again (or indeed if he will play a part at the scene of the crime). After snapping Stuart Holden’s leg and planting his studs as a karate kick in Xabi Alonso’s chest, the only sanction de Jong received after the latest offence was to be temporarily dropped from the Dutch national team. Further, Man City were given a penalty when Carlos Tevez was tripped outside the box and Newcastle denied one when Shola Ameobi had his legs hacked from under him inside. Man City won 2-1 when they should have lost 2-1 with ten men. The erring referee spent a time in the second tier for this egregious officiating.
A victory for the black-and-whites will lend impetus to an unlikely title tilt, whereas a draw will continue their pursuit of a European place (preferably Champions League). A 1-1 draw here, with Chelsea vs Liverpool on Sunday and Tottenham Hotspur vs Aston Villa on Monday will be very beneficial to the Toon. The odds are in favour of a Man City victory but not as overwhelmingly as they appeared to be at the start of the season.
The owner and managing director of NUFC will hope Alan Pardew can craft a positive result to take the heat off their devious, counter-productive and futile plan to strip the Toon’s stadium of the words ‘St James Park’. They claim it will raise money which was the same wheeze when they made it SportsDirect@St JamesPark.com. No-one came in then, no-one will now, yet they go on to say “You don’t know how horrible we can be.” What is the rationale for being nasty to fans? It makes no sense at all.