Newcastle United v Palace

St James' Park, Saturday 3.00pm

Story so far

Data supplied by the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Select and manage your own team of stars at fantasy.premierleague.com or with FIFA Ultimate Team for FIFA 14.

Newcastle’s first game without the suspended Alan Pardew at the helm resulted in defeat at the hands of strugglers Fulham. They’ll be looking for a reversal in fortunes when they host another relegation candidate in the form of Crystal Palace.

Newcastle will have felt aggrieved at the result as they dominated possession, and a rejected penalty claim in the last ten minutes will only have compounded their frustration. Much of the credit for their dominance of the football should go to Moussa Sissoko, who demonstrated his excellent passing ability.

The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows that he completed 32 passes in the opposition half, more than any other Newcastle player. Sissoko is 10/1 with 888sport.com to score the first goal of the game on Saturday.

Paul Dummett has impressed for Alan Pardew’s men since breaking into the first team at the start of the season. One area where he has particularly excelled is his tackling and he demonstrated this excellent ability on Saturday, winning 80% of his challenges adding to his overall season percentage of 74%.

Cheick Tiote made another 3 interceptions on Saturday to take his overall tally for the season to 51. This is an impressive figure and shows how important Tiote is to Newcastle’s rearguard effort.

Crystal Palace left the Stadium of Light with a point in their last Premier League fixture, a result that leaves them three points clear of the dreaded relegation zone.

Tony Pulis billed the game as a ‘must not lose’ and he will have been delighted with the performance of his back four to ensure that this didn’t happen.

In particular Damian Delaney impressed, as he marshaled his back four to great effect. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows that he made 20 defensive contributions which was the most in the Crystal Palace squad and the fifth most in the league.

Mile Jedinak has earned plaudits all term after producing a number of stellar defensive performances. This was the case again on Saturday as he made 4 interceptions, taking his overall tally for the season to a staggering 103.

The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows that this is comfortably the most in the league and underlines precisely how important the Australian is to the Palace squad.

If Crystal Palace are to survive this year the club should look to change the ground’s name to ‘Selhurst Pulis’ as they looked destined for the drop prior to him taking the reins. One area where he should be praised is his workings in the transfer market, as he has signed a number of players who have strengthened the squad.

One of these additions is centre half Scott Dann, and since he arrived in Croydon he has been a colossus at the back making a total of 60 defensive contributions in only 5 appearances.

Another move that Pulis made in the January transfer window was signing winger Jason Puncheon on a permanent deal. The former Southampton player has become a key component of the Southampton side and his offensive ability in particular is a key cog in the Eagles armoury.

The EA SPORTS Player Performance underlines this as it shows that Puncheon has made a total of 440 attacking contributions (based on passes in the opposition half, crosses, dribbles and shots on target), the second most in the Palace squad. You can find Puncheon at 14/1 with 888sport.com to score the first goal of the game at the weekend.

Team news

Eagles manager Tony Pulis will be without injured strikers Dwight Gayle and Maraoune Chamakh for the trip to Newcastle. Chamakh is still out with a hamstring strain while Gayle hurt his ankle in training this week. Barry Bannan hopes to make the squad after recovering from flu.

Newcastle midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa and Sammy Ameobi are both available after recovering from injury.

Manager Alan Pardew continues his stadium ban, while full-back Davide Santon (tonsillitis), goalkeeper Rob Elliot (knee), defender Mathieu Debuchy (groin) and striker Loic Remy (calf) are also missing.

Newcastle: (from) Krul, Alnwick, Coloccini, Williamson, Yanga-Mbiwa, S. Taylor, Dummett, Haidara, Tiote, Anita, Marveaux, Sissoko, Ben Arfa, Gouffran, Sammy Ameobi, Gosling, Cisse, De Jong, Shola Ameobi, Armstrong.

Palace: (from) Speroni, Dann, Mariappa, Ward, Delaney, Ledley, Dikgacoi, Bolasie, Jedinak, Murray, Ince, Guedioura, Puncheon, Jerome, Thomas, McCarthy, Bannan, Gabbidon, Hennessey.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"Chamakh won't be fit for Saturday. It is a massive blow because he plays that position so, so well. He is a good player, can score goals and he can drop into that number 10 position. It is a miss, but we have to get on with it.

"Gayley unfortunately got injured in training on Tuesday. It is his ankle. He is having a scan today, so we won't know what the extent of the injury is yet. We actually trained at Selhurst Park on Tuesday, because we thought it might be a bit too hard [at the training ground], but he did it at Selhurst.

"Alan [Pardew who has a stadium ban] will have more control than people think, with technology today, you can always have your finger on the pulse. If he is watching the game from afar, as long as he has contact - which he will have with the coaching staff - then I am sure they would have sorted that.

"Obviously you want to be there, in the thick of the action when all the preparation finishes, and you want to be there with the players when you can.

"There are a lot of managers who sit on the bench and they don't move, there are others, and I am one of them, who get really involved in the game. It is different for horses for courses, is there a right way, is there a wrong way? No, there is not."

Peter Ramage

"Newcastle have a few injuries but hopefully Palace can take advantage of that and come away with a positive result. I won't be able to go to the game, I'll be with Barnsley but I will have one eye on it. I'll have a foot in both camps.

"It will be a tough task getting past Tim Krul. I played with him through the youth teams and he's a top quality goalkeeper. Mike Williamson is also having a top season alongside Fabio Coloccini, while you can never write off Papiss Cisse.

"He hasn't had the greatest of seasons but he is a proven goalscorer so Palace will have to look out for him too, but there's quality throughout the squad."

Alan Pardew

"Tony's confidence and ability has pulled that team to within a fighting chance, because now they have a fighting chance of staying up. They'll be showing that on the pitch.

"They were very good at Sunderland, very resilient. They had a good performance at Sunderland and I don't expect them to be much different really. They will be fighting and scrapping, and Tony's teams are always very, very sure in terms of their jobs.

"It was frustrating watching from the hotel [due to ban]. It's difficult to assess the mood of the ground when it's coming through a flat screen. I know my team so I can read their body languages from the pictures but the mood and the atmosphere is something I'm not getting, so I'm reliant on John.

"I didn't get angry. I had different feelings. I had like a butterfly feeling you get when you're watching your favourite team play. I never get that as a manager so it was a bit strange. Maybe because I was detached I was a bit more nervous.

"We’re struggling for goals without Loic and he is not even our player. We really need Papiss, Luuk and Gouff to come up with the goods."

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Newcastle United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
9th	29	13	4	12	43

Full league table

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Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
21/12/2013	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 3	Newcastle United
27/01/2010	League	Newcastle United	2 - 0	Crystal Palace
22/08/2009	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	Newcastle United
30/04/2005	League	Newcastle United	0 - 0	Crystal Palace
20/11/2004	League	Crystal Palace	0 - 2	Newcastle United

All time results

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Last meeting

Palace 0-3 Newcastle United

Saturday December 21 2013

Palace: Speroni, Gabbidon, Moxey (Bolasie, 45), Mariappa, Delaney, Puncheon, Ward, Bannan (Parr, 45), Jedinak, Chamakh, Jerome (Gayle, 77)

Subs not used: Phillips, Williams, Price, Campana

Bookings: Chamakh

Newcastle United: Krul, Williamson, Debuchy, Santon, Coloccini, Cabaye (Ben Arfa, 79), Tiote, Anita, Gouffran, Sissoko, Remy (Ameobi, 75)

Subs not used: Obertan, Haidara, Yanga-Mbiwa, Cisse, Elliot

Goals: Cabaye (25), Gabbidon (39 og), Ben Arfa (pen 86)

Bookings: Coloccini, Tiote

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