King Kev Newcastle’s squad will bolster up with the return of Alan Smith and Nicky Butt after the FA suspensions but will still missing Emre, who is banned for the red card he received in Newcastle’s FA Cup 3rd round replay against Stoke City.
Mark Viduka remains doubt with calf problem, while Joey Barton is once again still unlikely to figure. After having worked with his squad for over a week now, King Kev is confident that Newcastle can give a hard time for the London side and will try to give them another Cup defeat.
“It’s a terrific tie for us. If you thought about the places where we could go there can’t be too many harder.” Keegan said in the official site, “The cup throws up shocks at times and for most people it would be a shock, but I’ve said to the players this week, ‘What do we want to go there and do?’ Obviously the aim is to still be in the competition.”
King Kev also ask the United squad to be courageous out there and try to cause them more problems. Keegan added with the players such as Alan Smith, Michael Owen, Charles N’Zogbia, Damien Duff and James Milner, it’s no good to asking them to go there and sit back try to get a goalless draw. I like that Mr. Keegan!
Arsenal will be minus Robin van Persie who still suffering a thigh injury, midfielder Denilson with hamstring, and Johan Djourou still got a groin injury, but defenders Philippe Senderos and Gael Clichy may return. Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alex Song all are away on African Nations Cup duty.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner on-pitch bust up during last Tuesday’s League Cup has made coward coach Arsene Wenger cancelled his regular Friday news conference, why oh why Mr. Wenger, are you afraid of being speechless infront of the press?