City are in desperate need of some kind of boost at the moment. After Saturday’s very disappointing but definitely deserved loss at Upton Park, which came following last week’s game in Moscow, City fans and players aren’t in the highest of spirits. With the first derby day of the season coming up in just five days, City need some resemblance of form going into that game against a strong and resurgent United side.
This midweek just might be the ticket – injury-hit and unhappy Newcastle United visit The Etihad in the Capital One Cup as The Blues aim to carry on defending the trophy they won last season. However whilst the game might seem like a formality, Saturday showed us not to take anything for granted.
This is already the second time City and The Magpies have faced off against each other this season – they met at St James’ Park in the first game of the season in August, with the visitors emerging victorious in the north-east. Despite some nervy moments, goals from David Silva (yep) and Sergio Agüero, who came on as a late substitute and scored within 10 minutes sealed a 2-0 victory for The Citizens on Tyneside.
That came after 4-0 (in Manchester) and 2-0 (in Newcastle) wins for City in the league games against The Magpies last season. City and Newcastle also met at this stage of the competition last year, but at St. James’ Park. It took until extra time to get the win, but Edin Džeko and Álvaro Negredo eventually got the goals in a 2-0 win that sent The Blues through. We’d then go on to beat Newcastle’s north-east rivals Sunderland at Wembley in March on a day we’ll remember for a long time.
City got to this stage of the competition with a 7-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday last month. Frank Lampard scored a brace and youngster José Pozo even got on the scoresheet on a great night for some of City’s less-regular stars. However the scoreline didn’t tell the full story of the game, with The Owls holding their hosts to a draw for the first half of the game. However eventually quality shined through and Manuel Pellegrini blew away Stuart Gray and his team.
This is already the third game Newcastle have played in the League Cup this season; due to no European competition they started off in the 2nd Round where they faced Gillingham away and won 1-0 thanks to a John Egan own goal. In the 3rd round last month they made the trip to Selhurst Park to face Crystal Palace; not only did they have to come behind and the game went to extra-time, their task wasn’t made any easier by Mehdi Abeid being sent off ten minutes into extra-time. However somehow they found a winner through Paul Dummett, tying up a trip to Manchester for the 4th Round.
In terms of injuries, tomorrow could see our list of wounded shrink to just one. We are likely to see the return of Samir Nasri from a groin injury that required an operation and has kept him out for several weeks. The Frenchman could be played in order to try and regain him some fitness ahead of Sunday’s derby against United. It’s unlikely Pellegrini wants him going into that game having not played since the loss to Bayern Munich in mid-September.
Frank Lampard is absent for the visit of Alan Pardew’s Toon side however, as he is still recovering from a thigh injury he picked up against Spurs a couple of weeks ago.
For City’s visitors on Wednesday, there is a lot of injury concern with nine players absent. Papiss Cissé (knee) and Cheikh Tioté (calf) are both out of the match, however Mike Williamson (muscle) may return to the side. Emmanuel Riviere (knock), Rolando Aarons (hamstring), Siem De Jong (thigh strain), Davide Santon (knee) and Curtis Good (groin) are all missing too.
The visit of The Magpies provides the chance for some of the players who don’t get much chance to impress, an opportunity to show off their skills to the manager and to the fans. Players like Martin Demichelis and Scott Sinclair, the ones for whom there are better alternatives in the squad.
Pellegrini has been coming under fire lately, and desperately needs a win to keep spirits high before the Manchester derby at the weekend. Whilst Newcastle are a chance to do that, it could end up being a sticky night for The Blues, just like we saw against West Ham last week. Fingers crossed, eh Blues?
