Newcastle United v Chelsea @ St James’ Park
Saturday September 25 @ 5.30pm
Jose Mourinho’s resurgent Chelsea will be looking to prolong Newcastle United’s suffering tomorrow when they travel to St James’ Park.
The Magpies are one of only two teams yet to win in the Barclays Premier League this season, and were booed off the pitch after losing to Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup in midweek.
Chelsea on the other hand have steadied the ship with three wins in eight days after a rocky start to their campaign which has them in 15th.
But they will have to do without star striker Diego Costa after he was retrospectively banned for three matches for clashing with Arsenals’ Laurent Koscielny last Saturday.
That means Loic Remy, who was among the scorers in Wednesday’s 4-1 cup victory over Walsall, or Falcao could lead the line in the north east.
Despite being unimpressed by the FA’s ruling on Costa, Mourinho was wary not to say much more in today’s pre-match conference.
He said: “Only one manager is not under pressure. Every other manager is under pressure.
“We are performing well, and the players are getting there.”
Newcastle will have Serbian international Aleksander Mitrovic’s back from a three-match ban as they look to relieve the pressure on under-fire manager Steve McLaren.
But they are still without Steven Taylor, Cheick Tiote, Paul Dummett, Curtis Good, Emmanuel Riviere and Sylvian Marveaux, with Papiss Cisse also a doubt.
Feature image courtesy of Chelsea FC, via Youtube, with thanks
