The long trek up to St James’ Park was never a particularly pleasant experience, even when Newcastle were a shambles of a club.
Since their takeover by Saudi Arabia, however, the difficulty and hostility has been ramped up and the prospect of a positive result much diminished.
It was something of a pleasant surprise when we walked away with a 2-0 win in this fixture last season, particularly as Eddie Howe’s side were in such good form for the majority of the campaign, but I sense it won’t be anywhere near as easy this time around.
Whatever happens, we’re going to have to toil for it.
This current iteration of Newcastle is an attritional one – with huge emphasis on physicality and aggression – and it won’t simply be a case of trying to play around them. They will be battling for every ball, fouling, spoiling and breaking up the game wherever they can.
They’ll be doubling up in the wide areas, targeting our wide players, jumping on our central midfielders whenever and wherever they can and trying to win the ball as high up the pitch as possible. I don’t expect a moment’s peace.
The only way to overcome it, is to match it. If we’re not up for that challenge, if we’re not ready for duels, we will be exposed quickly.
The sort of performance we saw in midweek against West Ham just won’t do. A repeat of that sort of timidity and lack of energy will see us overawed. We need to be prepared to mix it.
In fairness, I have no doubt we will see a much higher level of performance from our starting XI but that is still no guarantee of success. These days we need to be at our best to get a result in the north east.
We’re pretty much guaranteed to see Declan Rice again in midfield, despite his general lack of rest, but the big conundrum will be who we see alongside him. In the continued and overwhelmingly annoying absence of Thomas Partey, we are going to need someone who can stand up to the bullying that is coming.
Is Jorginho up to that task? While he is good under pressure and in possession, I don’t know that his off the ball work and stamina will bring what we need to the table. Could Mohamed Elneny do a job for 90 minutes?
The Egyptian is certainly better suited to some off-the-ball dirty work than the Italian and god knows we will need every ounce of intensity we can wring from our midfield. That could be one to watch.
That aside, I think this side pretty much picks itself. The only other real area of interest will be the left back position. Including Oleksandr Zinchenko may help us in build-up but Newcastle will be certain to target his wing for long balls if he is selected to play. He will need support.
As it happens, I think Takehiro Tomiyasu will keep his place and we will rely on the physical upgrade we get when he plays down that side (when he plays on any side, frankly). In a game of this intensity, I think that will be key.
Up front I expect Mikel Arteta will stick with Eddie Nketiah in the absence of Gabriel Jesus but I genuinely wonder if it playing Kai Havertz would be smarter. The German’s physical advantages I think will be more useful to us against a big Newcastle side. In games like these, Eddie can get swallowed up under the high ball and the ball rarely sticks to him in the same way it does with Jesus.
Havertz offers more stickability and a better option in the air. We will see.
From our perspective, getting the Newcastle full-backs isolated is going to be key so we’re going to rely on quick ball. The sort of stodgy, slow recycling of possession we saw at the London Stadium in midweek would be disastrous for us if we harbour serious ambitions of winning this one.
When all is said and done, how much we want the three points is going to be decisive. Against Sheffield United last week, we could have played at half-tilt and still come away with a result. I don’t think that will fly against a side as aggressive as Newcastle.
We need to be ready to fight from the first whistle.
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