Newcastle vs Arsenal
Date: 11/08/2019
K/O: 14:00
Venue: St James Park
TV: Sky Sports Main Event
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Newcastle host Arsenal at St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon as Steve Bruce opens his Premier League account with Newcastle after a chaotic summer for both clubs.
Newcastle open the season with a new manager after Rafael Benitez showed up Mike Ashley’s lack of ambition by leaving the club for the prestige of managing Dalian Yifang. Benitez was replaced by Steve Bruce whose appointment was greeted with the enthusiasm of an England batsman having to bat sensibly for more than an hour.
Benitez was also followed out of the club by last years surprise hit strike force of Rondon and Perez. Newcastle did manage to hold on to Sean Longstaff though despite reported interest from Manchester United. They have added Emile Krafth, Jetro Willems and Alain Saint Maximin to the ranks as well as a free transfer purchase of Andy Carroll and a club record buy for striker Joelinton.
Newcastle are joint fourth favourites for relegation this upcoming campaign and it may be that survival is only achieved from the shortcomings of others. However Bruce has had a steady enough managerial career and whilst he is not the most exciting appointment, Rafa Benitez style of football could never be mistaken for Brazil 1970 and if Joelinton and Almiron can combine up front the season can still be a qualified success.
Team News
Arsenal
Their visitors Arsenal come to town off the back of a transfer splurge which saw them lose Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech, Danny Welbeck, David Ospina, Stephan Lichsteiner, Alex Iwobi and Laurent Koscielny who left in a stunning act of hubris.
Unai Emery then reshaped his team with the signings of winger Nicolas Pepe, midfielder Dani Cebellos, full back Kieran Tierney and a stunning cross London swoop for David Luiz. It looks unlikely that all of the new signings will start on Sunday given the late signings of Tierney and Luiz whilst Pepe is yet to to play a minute in pre season and Ceballos has a slight injury niggle.
Arsenal also have injuries to Bellerin, Holding, Mavropanos and will assess Elneny after AFCON duty. Star striker Alexander Lacazette is also a slight injury doubt but should be able to play his part. A more worrying development for Arsenal is the lack of Kolasinac and Ozil who are ruled out on security advise as police as still investigating a car jacking incident from pre season.
Newcastle
Newcastle are without Yedlin and Lejeune whilst Ritchie, Colback and Carroll look likely to lose fitness battles.
Arsenal will look to start the season better than last seasons back to back defeats and will hope the successful transfer window provides some momentum after a dispiriting end to last season. April and May saw a Champions League place slip through their grasp after consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leicester and a Europa League final thrashing by Chelsea. Given Manchester United and Chelsea’s struggles during pre season Arsenal may follow Newcastle’s lead and have a successful season due to the shortcomings of others.
Any neutrals will hope for a repeat of the spicy opener between the sides in 2011 when Joey Barton got Gervinho sent off to leave Wenger apoplectic, the two also played out a stunning 4-4 draw in the same fixture earlier in 2011. The key to this weekend’s battle will be whether Joelinton hits the ground running against an often flakey Arsenal defence and if Aubameyang can continue his flat track destruction of lower league teams and backing clean sheets is not to be advised.
Predicted Starting XIs
Newcastle (3-5-2): Dubravka; Schar, Lascelles, Fernandez; Manquillo, Hayden, Longstaff, Shelvey, Willems; Almiron, Joelinton
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Leno; Maitland Niles, Sokratis, Chambers, Monreal; Cellabos, Xhaka; Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, Willock; Lacazette
Score Prediction: Newcastle United 2 – 2 Arsenal
Steve Bruce will be wanting to get his Newcastle career off to a good start and will hope he has the backing of the St James’ Park faithful. This won’t be an easy one for the Gunners either and considering the late arrivals of Luiz and Tierney, who may not feature, we could likely see the leaky Arsenal defence and Joelinton get off to a good start in the Toon.
