Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur – live! | Rob Bagchi:
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23 min: Spurs free-kick for Ben Arfa's shirt tug, 40 yards from goal on the left. Bale swings in a cross but Newcastle see out the danger, holding off Walker's attempt to recover possession by the right touchline.
21 min: Ba drops back to link up the play when Tioté retreats as a shield in front of his centre-halfs. He laid it off to Simpson then sprinted forward to take the long diagonal pass but Gallas squeezed him out. A moment later Cissé almost scores with a 25-yard shot that takes a deflection, flat foots Friedel and trickles past his right post. This is a far better spell for Newcastle now.
19 min: Newcastle have been on the back foot too much to get Cissé and Ba on the ball. They just tried to get a quick break again from the middle of the field when Sandro grabs Ben Arfa's arm to hold back his run. He joins Livermore in the book.
17 min: Livermore brings down Ben Arfa in the centre-circle and he gets a booking for that tame-looking trip. Anita goes back to warming up with his high-vis vest on rather than standing on the touchline with the manager whispering into his ear.
15 min: Danny Simpson gives away a free kick on the left and is booked. Sigurdsson loops the cross-shot over the bar. Anita is about to come on for Tioté even if Tioté keeps telling Pardew he wants to carry on.
13 min: Good strong tackle from Gutierrez blocks Walker's cross. Sigurdsson looks a real livewire in this formation, just behind Defoe but drifting wide, particularly to the right to overload with Walker and Lennon. That's what made Gutierrez's intervention so vital and a reward for his reading of the danger.
11 min: Loose interplay between Perch and Santon gives the ball away 30 yards from goal and Sigurdsson curls a peach of a cross to the far post but bale had already cut inside.
9 min: Tottenham look very quick and dangerous on the break. Newcastle have another free-kick just inside the Spurs half. Cabaye drills it to the far post from the left of the field and Friedel plucks it out of the air.
7 min: Gutierrez wins a free-kick as he dribbles through midfield to the left of centre, just in side the Spurs' half. Sandro clears the cross. Ben Arfa's cross when it breaks down flies out to Lennon who storms forward, slips a pass through to Sandro who has made great ground. he miskicks it and his shot finds Sigurdsson, who is given offside in the area when clattered into by Krul but he shouldn't have been.
5 min: Tioté jogs back on after a minute getting treatment to his knee. Assou-Ekotto chips a 70-yard pass forward for Bale, Taylor holds him off and ushers the ball out for a goalkick. Bale wears Taylor's arm on the nose, accidental I think. He's wearing the No11 shirt this season, Bale.
3 min: Taken by corner specialist Sigurdsson, Kaboul tries to turn and shoot and Perch blocks. Another corner which Newcastle clear up the field where when Spurs build again Tioté slides into Sigurdsson with huge force, but fairly, and looks to have come off worst.
1 min: New season, new season bookies' ads to gladden the heart. We're away Newcastle begin as ESPN announces that Alex Song has joined Barcelona from Arsenal for £16m. Spurs attack up the right through Lennon and Walker, a pair of speedsters, but Santon reads their intentions and blocks out Walker's pass for a corner.
Substitute change: Shola Ameobi has hurt his hamstring in the warm-up and though Newcastle wanted to name Marveaux as his replacement but they're still trying to locate him … now they've named Amalfitano instead.
Omens: ESPN has just said that these two have met three times for the first match of the season with Spurs winning all three. Yet Newcastle have won four and drawn two of the past six at St James' Park. André Villas Boas says he didn't pick Vertonghen because Kaboul and Gallas have more experience. Coloccini is out with a thigh strain for the Toon, meaning James Perch comes in. I liked his work as a central midfield holding player last season, not so sure of him at centre-half.
Brief preamble: I've been on cricket duty so sorry for the late filing. Opening day always used to evoke for me the inspirational sentiments expressed so vividly by the great baseball writer Thomas Boswell in his essay Why Time Begins on Opening Day. "Born to an age where horror has become commonplace, where tragedy has, by its monotonous repetition, become a parody of sorrow," Boswell wrote in 1984, "we need to fence off a few parks where humans try to be fair, where skill has some hope of reward, where absurdity has a harder time than usual getting a ticket." Already, after a series of extraordinary Premier League results, hope is dashed for QPR and Norwich and Liverpool have hardly ushered in the Brendan Rodgers era with confidence, grumbles from my colleagues about refereeing notwithstanding.
For this match between the fourth and fifth-placed teams last season, the joy of their pristine fixture lists is the hope writ large throughout them. Will Newcastle be able to build on last season. How will Papiss Cissé fare in a full season? Tottenham have a new manager, a new system and a fine new midfielder in Gylfi Sigurdsson. What will we learn? Let's find out here and also have a look on Monday when the "five things we learned" feature we've run for the past few seasons reappears as "10 things we learned".
Here are your teams:
Newcastle: Krul; Simpson, Steven Taylor, Perch, Santon; Ben Arfa, Tioté, Cabaye, Gutié rrez; Cissé, Ba.
Subs: Harper, Williamson, Anita, Gosling, Ryan Taylor, Shola Ameobi, Obertan.
Tottenham: Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Livermore, Sandro; Lennon, Sigurdsson, Bale; Defoe.
Subs: Cudicini, Vertonghen, Van der Vaart, Naughton, Jenas, Townsend,
Kane.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
• Hit F5 or the auto-update buttton for the latest posts
• Send your thoughts to rob.bagchi@guardian.co.uk
• Check the live scores and results from around Europe
23 min: Spurs free-kick for Ben Arfa's shirt tug, 40 yards from goal on the left. Bale swings in a cross but Newcastle see out the danger, holding off Walker's attempt to recover possession by the right touchline.
21 min: Ba drops back to link up the play when Tioté retreats as a shield in front of his centre-halfs. He laid it off to Simpson then sprinted forward to take the long diagonal pass but Gallas squeezed him out. A moment later Cissé almost scores with a 25-yard shot that takes a deflection, flat foots Friedel and trickles past his right post. This is a far better spell for Newcastle now.
19 min: Newcastle have been on the back foot too much to get Cissé and Ba on the ball. They just tried to get a quick break again from the middle of the field when Sandro grabs Ben Arfa's arm to hold back his run. He joins Livermore in the book.
17 min: Livermore brings down Ben Arfa in the centre-circle and he gets a booking for that tame-looking trip. Anita goes back to warming up with his high-vis vest on rather than standing on the touchline with the manager whispering into his ear.
15 min: Danny Simpson gives away a free kick on the left and is booked. Sigurdsson loops the cross-shot over the bar. Anita is about to come on for Tioté even if Tioté keeps telling Pardew he wants to carry on.
13 min: Good strong tackle from Gutierrez blocks Walker's cross. Sigurdsson looks a real livewire in this formation, just behind Defoe but drifting wide, particularly to the right to overload with Walker and Lennon. That's what made Gutierrez's intervention so vital and a reward for his reading of the danger.
11 min: Loose interplay between Perch and Santon gives the ball away 30 yards from goal and Sigurdsson curls a peach of a cross to the far post but bale had already cut inside.
9 min: Tottenham look very quick and dangerous on the break. Newcastle have another free-kick just inside the Spurs half. Cabaye drills it to the far post from the left of the field and Friedel plucks it out of the air.
7 min: Gutierrez wins a free-kick as he dribbles through midfield to the left of centre, just in side the Spurs' half. Sandro clears the cross. Ben Arfa's cross when it breaks down flies out to Lennon who storms forward, slips a pass through to Sandro who has made great ground. he miskicks it and his shot finds Sigurdsson, who is given offside in the area when clattered into by Krul but he shouldn't have been.
5 min: Tioté jogs back on after a minute getting treatment to his knee. Assou-Ekotto chips a 70-yard pass forward for Bale, Taylor holds him off and ushers the ball out for a goalkick. Bale wears Taylor's arm on the nose, accidental I think. He's wearing the No11 shirt this season, Bale.
3 min: Taken by corner specialist Sigurdsson, Kaboul tries to turn and shoot and Perch blocks. Another corner which Newcastle clear up the field where when Spurs build again Tioté slides into Sigurdsson with huge force, but fairly, and looks to have come off worst.
1 min: New season, new season bookies' ads to gladden the heart. We're away Newcastle begin as ESPN announces that Alex Song has joined Barcelona from Arsenal for £16m. Spurs attack up the right through Lennon and Walker, a pair of speedsters, but Santon reads their intentions and blocks out Walker's pass for a corner.
Substitute change: Shola Ameobi has hurt his hamstring in the warm-up and though Newcastle wanted to name Marveaux as his replacement but they're still trying to locate him … now they've named Amalfitano instead.
Omens: ESPN has just said that these two have met three times for the first match of the season with Spurs winning all three. Yet Newcastle have won four and drawn two of the past six at St James' Park. André Villas Boas says he didn't pick Vertonghen because Kaboul and Gallas have more experience. Coloccini is out with a thigh strain for the Toon, meaning James Perch comes in. I liked his work as a central midfield holding player last season, not so sure of him at centre-half.
Brief preamble: I've been on cricket duty so sorry for the late filing. Opening day always used to evoke for me the inspirational sentiments expressed so vividly by the great baseball writer Thomas Boswell in his essay Why Time Begins on Opening Day. "Born to an age where horror has become commonplace, where tragedy has, by its monotonous repetition, become a parody of sorrow," Boswell wrote in 1984, "we need to fence off a few parks where humans try to be fair, where skill has some hope of reward, where absurdity has a harder time than usual getting a ticket." Already, after a series of extraordinary Premier League results, hope is dashed for QPR and Norwich and Liverpool have hardly ushered in the Brendan Rodgers era with confidence, grumbles from my colleagues about refereeing notwithstanding.
For this match between the fourth and fifth-placed teams last season, the joy of their pristine fixture lists is the hope writ large throughout them. Will Newcastle be able to build on last season. How will Papiss Cissé fare in a full season? Tottenham have a new manager, a new system and a fine new midfielder in Gylfi Sigurdsson. What will we learn? Let's find out here and also have a look on Monday when the "five things we learned" feature we've run for the past few seasons reappears as "10 things we learned".
Here are your teams:
Newcastle: Krul; Simpson, Steven Taylor, Perch, Santon; Ben Arfa, Tioté, Cabaye, Gutié rrez; Cissé, Ba.
Subs: Harper, Williamson, Anita, Gosling, Ryan Taylor, Shola Ameobi, Obertan.
Tottenham: Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Livermore, Sandro; Lennon, Sigurdsson, Bale; Defoe.
Subs: Cudicini, Vertonghen, Van der Vaart, Naughton, Jenas, Townsend,
Kane.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)
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