Manchester United will face Newcastle on Wednesday, December 26th 2012 at the Old Trafford at 15:00.
United is currently 4 points ahead of ManCity in the Premier League. It will be a tough game for Newcastle since everyone expects Manchester to be at its best after drawing the first game of the season against Swansea last week. Newcastle, on the other side, just won against big game against QPR considering they lost the last 6 out of 7 games. In previous weeks, they lost against ManCity (1:3), Fulham (2:1), but beat Wigan (3:0) at the beginning of December.
Nemanja Vidic’s recent return was a welcomed boost for the Reds’ defence. The game against Newcastle might be still too early for the injured Shinji Kagawa, Nani, Anderson and Rafael who missed the game against Swansea. Rooney and Robin van Persie also both picked up their fourth booking of the season, but Ferguson has lots of options up front with Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck. However, the United player have plenty of respect of Newcastle and they know they have to expect a tough game. Welbeck said: “They’ve found it a bit tougher this year but I know they’ve had some injuries, which have played a part.You can still see potential throughout their team. They have some real attacking threats – everyone knows about players like Demba Ba and Papiss Cissé.”
Newcastle, currently 14th in the table, needs to start winning on the road. Newcastle won none of the last 3 away games against Fulham (2:1), Stoke (2:1) and Southampton (2:0). The Pardew side also faces major injury issues. Hatem Ben Arfa, Steven Taylor (both hamstring), Yohan Cabaye (groin) and Ryan Taylor (knee) will miss the game against Manchester United on Wednesday. Also, Midfielder Tiote is suspended after his fifth booking of the season. Alan Pardew said: “This is the most important part of the season. It is when we always get a lot of points. I am not worried. I am really confident for the games that are ahead.”
ManUnited will host West Brom at home at the Old Trafford before travelling to Wigan on January 1st 2013. Newcastle, however, has to start winning again and will travel to the Emirates Stadium to play Arsenal on December 29th before the host Everton at home at St. James Park on January 2nd.
