This weekend, Newcastle United welcome high-flying Chelsea to St James Park for a Premier League fixture.
The two clubs have had vastly different starts to the 2018 / 2019 season.
Newcastle have managed to accumulate just a solitary one point from their opening two games whilst the West London side has a maximum six out of six.
The game is the first of three difficult fixtures that Newcastle face with games against Manchester City and Arsenal to follow.
Ahead of the game and in what we hope will be a regular feature, we’ve picked three points for you to mull over.
The first point for you to dissect surround our Brazilian loan star, Kenedy. Against Cardiff City, last time out, the youngster didn’t have the best of games, in fact, it is fair to say he had something of a nightmare, failing to find a teammate with any of his passed whilst also missing a last-gasp penalty that would have given Newcastle all three points.
Kenedy, due to Chelsea being his parent club, is unable to play in this fixture, some might say this, after the Cardiff debacle, is a blessing in disguise. Here at Vital Newcastle United, we are hoping that a week out of the spotlight will enable the talented player to regain his composure and come back able to show what he is all about in our next fixture, against Manchester City.
The second point relates to who we perceive as Chelsea’s main threat, the Belgian international, Eden Hazard. Voted the second best player in the recent 2018 World Cup, Hazard’s late return from the competition, courtesy of Belgium reaching the quarter-finals, has seen him come off the bench in Chelsea’s two previous Premier League games.
However, he has still made a considerable impact and is, in our eyes, a real danger to our hopes of getting anything from the fixture this weekend. The big dilemma is whether Rafael Benitez opts to man-mark Hazard, which has been a successful ploy in the past, or simply instructs whoever is closest to him to pick him up. What would you do?
The third point relates to how Newcastle need to take any chances that come their way. Against Arsenal, a game that was shown live on the TV, Chelsea raced into a 2-0 lead, however, it was noticeable that the West London side were very poor defensively. By half-time, Arsenal had levelled the game up at 2-2, but if they’d taken the numerous chances that came their way, they’d have been home and dry as far as a victory was concerned.
There’s no denying that Newcastle, courtesy of the way Maurizio Sarri likes his sides to play attacking football, will be under pressure for periods of the game, however, as Arsenal showed, launching quick attacks can create chances. If this is the case this weekend, then we cannot afford to be as wasteful as Arsenal were on Saturday afternoon. Whoever the chances fall to just has to take them, otherwise it could be a long ninety minutes.
Bring it on is what I say, I sense a shock, how about you?
Please feel free to leave your views in the comments facility beneath this article.