I’ve been trying to do a weekly article lately, voicing my hopes and concerns for the upcoming match involving Newcastle. I have already done City and United, so let’s give Chelsea a whirl.

The London club are the last of the ‘first real tests’ that Newcastle face, after a hard few weeks in competition with the League’s finest. Against Manchester City we were somewhat unfortunate, whilst luck was definitely on our side as we battened down the hatches and came away with a point against United.

I would say that Chelsea are definitely the weakest of the 3 teams to face us recently. City have quality in abundance, whilst United, although not firing on all cylinders are still extremely threatening, especially at home. With Chelsea it seems a bit different. Their team is very much in a transitional period, with their big name players that Abramovich assembled into the title winning sides of 2005 and 2006, coming to the end of their careers. Look through their line up in their defeat to Liverpool last week and you quickly realise just how old their team is:

• Cech(29), Ivanovic(27), Ashley Cole(30), David Luiz(24), Terry(30), Ramires(24), Lampard(33), Mikel(24), Malouda(31), Mata(23), Drogba(33).
• Average Age- 28

Compare that with Newcastle’s team for their game against City:

• Krul(23), Simpson(24), Coloccini(29), Saylor(25), Raylor(27), Sammy(19), Cabaye(25), Guthrie(24), Gutierrez(28), Ba(26), Ben Arfa(24)
• Average Age-24.9

Obviously, the likes of David Luiz and Mata have been purchased recently, but the core of the team from previous title winning seasons (Terry, Lampard, Drogba) will not be together for much longer.

For me, this is why Chelsea are not up there with United and City. Whereas United are in a transitional period and have begun the process of buying replacements, Chelsea are left with a team, that at its core is the same team from around 2004. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Obviously, the great teams assemble a quality squad and keep the majority of it for years, but for Chelsea, the end is nearing for their core players, and as yet, they haven’t managed to replace them.

Looking through Chelsea’s team, you can see they have been weak in a number of key areas so far this season. Defensively, it is well documented that playing the high line as they have been doing doesn’t seem to be effective. This is illustrated by the fact that they have conceded 17 goals, and that they have already lost 4 games.
In goal is another place I feel Chelsea are weak. 4 or 5 years ago many would have considered Petr Cech to be one of the best ‘keepers around, but over the past few years there are a number of times where he has looked alarmingly average. Just take Leverkusen’s winner in the Champion’s league last week:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne9Fd-JoBFk

To me, a keeper of so called ‘world-class- quality should save that, whereas Cech kind of crouches and reaches, as if pretending to try to get it, but not really. A world class keeper can save you points, as Tim Krul did on Saturday, but a poor keeper can easily have the opposite effect, costing you heavily. I’m not saying I think Cech is a bad keeper, he isn’t, but he definitely isn’t what he once was, and I would like to think some way off our very own Dutch magician.

Offensively, the addition of Juan Mata appears to have improved them greatly. With Drogba not as heavily relied on as in previous years, Torres has begun to show glimpses of a return to form, although his best still seems a long way away. It is in Daniel Sturridge, however, that Chelsea really seem to have found their long term striker. At only 22 he is still not at his best, but last year began to hit form, whilst on loan at Bolton. While with the Trotters he bagged 8 goals in 12 appeaances, and since re-joining Chelsea has continued the form, with 7 goals in 14 appearances.

The public perception of the Chelsea one seems to be that out of our most recent matches, It is definitely the one in which we have the most chance of a win, by their own standards Chelsea have been poor this season, and with our home form consisting of 4 wins and 2 draws, points are definitely for the taking.

Last time out, Chelsea beat Wolves comfortably, running out 3-0 winners against Stamford bridge, but prior to that, defeats in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen, and at home to Liverpool had piled the pressure on Andre Villas Boas, who to me looks more and more like Roy Hodgson with every defeat.

If we avoid defeat it will signal a very impressive few weeks for the team, who despite losing their unbeaten record, have illustrated that our unbeaten run wasn’t a flash in the pan and can look to kick on with upcoming fixtures against Norwich, Swansea and West Brom.

After feeling upbeat and positive about Newcastle United’s prospects against Manchester City last week, I wrote an article about our chances that many of you may have read. Perhaps next time I should write less from the heart and more from the head. I’m going to try again, this time about this Saturday’s match against Manchester United.

I have to be honest. I was disappointed with the City score. On another day we could have had four of five- but if you don’t take your chances against top class opposition, you’re always likely to finish on the wrong end of the result. It’s definitely a match we can learn from though. On another day, we wouldn’t have given away two penalties, and a few more of our shots might have found the back of Joe Hart’s net.

Ironically, after the defeat to City, I heard more positive praise from pundits than I have done for any of our previous matches this season. Dan Walker, presenter of Football Focus, commented on Twitter that he was impressed with us. Even Paul Merson struggled to criticise us saying that we played ‘very well’ and that prior to City scoring their first, they were ‘running out of ideas’.

After a few days to move on and forget about the result, I feel that we played relatively well in places. As mentioned, we could have had at least one goal before City scored, which would have made the game an entirely different prospect. As it was, two bits of poor defending from a usually solid Ryan Taylor gifted City a comfortable lead, and from then on we were always chasing the game. It’s something which is pretty hard to do against the league leaders.

For me it’s only positive from here. We have played the team, who on current form, are the best in the league by a mile. We can go into the match against United knowing that again, we’re expected to get beat. But if we win, it will be massive for the team, and it’ll be an illustration of just how good we can be.

I think more NUFC fans are hopeful of a win this week than last. Against City, we did pretty well to keep the game competitive, in my opinion, against a team who are streets ahead of us financially (and on the pitch). This week the outlook is somewhat better. Our squad still seems positive, so much so that Yohan ‘dreamboat’ Cabaye gave an interview claiming Newcastle will go into the game with United ‘playing for a win’.

I feel the game against United is a game we could definitely get something from. I mean really get something from. Not like last week’s ‘I feel we’ll give City a shock’. But really more than we are expected to against the perennial title challengers.

Following their draw against Benfica in mid-week, Manchester United will be looking to bounce back in the league. They best Swansea away last week, but only narrowly. And with Rooney and Welbeck doubtful, their ability to freely score goals is dramatically compromised. It’s in midfield, however, where I feel that Newcastle can really prosper. United have looked poor in the middle of the park so far this season, lacking the drive or guile of previous seasons in which the likes of Paul Scholes have controlled the game. They have been a much better midfield side with Tom Cleverley included, but with him out injured, the door really is ajar for Newcastle to come in and steal something especially with the hope that Cheick Tiote will be fit again and ready to rekindle his midfield partnership with Cabaye.

Manchester United have looked quite poor in my opinion for the last few weeks. I say poor, but obviously they have to have been pretty good to be sitting in second place. But for United, they don’t seem to have that usual spark Fergie’s teams normally have. As I have already said, it’s well documented how poor their midfield has looked this season, and with our midfield arguably being one of the best in the league, twelve games in, we have a real chance of going to Old Trafford and coming away with something.

I really hope we can get something. To me, this match is more of a test than last week. Newcastle were always likely to be on the wrong end of a hammering from City, if you were to believe the pundits, but it never really happened. Yes we lost, but it wasn’t the battering many had predicted. This week we face the red half of Manchester who look far inferior to their neighbours, so it’s not impossible we could go there and surprise a few.

When the two remaining unbeaten clubs in the Premier League meet on Saturday, many will be expecting only one outcome. After City’s incredible early season form, which has seen them brush aside the likes of Spurs, Aston Villa and, famously, Manchester United, it would be perhaps fair to envisage only a win for the League leaders. What stands in their way however is a Newcastle side high on confidence. Without a league defeat since May 1, Newcastle have without a doubt surprised many, but even the most ardent Newcastle fan would surely be foolish to expect anything other than a defeat at the Etihad. Well, perhaps. Perhaps we might lose our unbeaten run, but then again, perhaps City will get a shock.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News on Tuesday, ex Newcastle and City footballer Antoine Sibierski believes City should not take Newcastle lightly.

“People say Newcastle are the shock team but I knew they would do well – they have so many French players… you can’t underestimate Newcastle – they are on a good run and have great team spirit, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they got a result.”

It’s clear from this that he thinks Newcastle will put up a good fight, something which perhaps the rest of the media disagree with. With Paddy Power, Newcastle are 9/1 to win, odds which you would normally associate with a top versus bottom clash, not first versus third. BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson will, no doubt, predict Newcastle to get beat by 3 or 4 in his weekly predictions, but whilst those who know best may have us on a hiding to nothing, things might not be so clear cut. When the two sides meet on Saturday, it will be the league’s top scorers against the league’s meanest defence, so to predict Newcastle to ship 3 or 4 may be forgetting that Newcastle appear to be a changed team. Last year, perhaps it would be acceptable to expect a mauling at the hands of one of the big four, but that was the Newcastle of old. Having only conceded 8 goals in the league this season, and with only 3 or those coming away from home, it surely is not inconceivable that Newcastle could go to Manchester and frustrate City.

There is a high chance that Newcastle will go there and get beat, but I still feel that we have a better chance than many might suggest. I read something the other day about our position. We are now well over a quarter of the way through the season, and we currently sit in third, one point behind Manchester United, and six behind City, yet we are still 250/1 to win the league. If it was Liverpool in our position, would they be considered title contenders? The answer for me would be yes, so why aren’t we? I’m not saying we are going to win the title- I don’t think we will be anywhere near- but at this moment in time, still unbeaten and sitting in third, we surely should be taken seriously. Our run was tipped to end at the hands of Spurs, and then again at the Britannia, but so far, it’s still going and there’s no reason why it should end this weekend.

Come Saturday evening, it is probable that there will only be one team left in the league left unbeaten, and whilst most would suggest that Lineker and company will be drooling over multiple goals from the likes of Aguero and Dzeko, it’s not all that unlikely that they could be sat there starting to take Newcastle a little bit more seriously.

The team plays in an all white strip with a black trim and our mascot is a 9ft swan with an attitude problem called Cyril. The team’s nicknames are the Jacks or the Swans — with the fans calling themselves the Jack Army. What the fans lack in size they make up for in passion. Together with Wales being famous for singing, they make for a good matchday experience.

Historically Swansea was seen as the hotbed for Welsh footballing talent. Players who would then be bought by richer clubs in England. The greatest of them all being John Charles “The Gentle Giant” who got snapped up by Leeds, who then sold him on to Juventus. Charles’ accomplishments with Juventus led to him being voted ‘the greatest foreign player ever in Serie A’, ahead of Maradona, Michel Platini, Marco Van Basten and Zinedine Zidane – this in 1997, 34 years after his last appearance in the league. In 2001 he became the first non-Italian inducted to the Azzurri Hall of Fame. Not bad for a Swansea boy.

Another player worth mentioning is Giorgio Chinaglia. Born in Italy and raised in Wales, he still today has a bit of a Welsh accent. The Swans released him early in his career because of disciplinary problems; he would then go on to play for Lazio and the Italian national side as well as the New York Cosmos.

More recently the hotbed has shifted 40 miles east towards Cardiff, Swansea’s bitterest rivals. They’ve produced three top players in Ryan Giggs, Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey over recent years. However, with the Swans newly acquired funds, money can be invested into hopefully producing the John Charles of tomorrow.

The club has come a long way both on and off the pitch. In the late 70s and early 80s, they moved from the bottom of the Fourth Division to Division One in 8 years, More recently, they moved from their old stadium “The Vetch” to their 20,000 seated Liberty Stadium. This whilst playing controlled attacking football which some say is akin to the way Barcelona play, leading to the many in the media nicknaming them Swanseaola. There are definitely similarities as the stats back it up, with the Swans averaging over 500 passes per game last season, 90 more than their nearest rivals. However, Swansea’s manager Brendan Rodgers was once an understudy to Jose Mourinhio, so I can also see similarities to the way he sets his teams up. But in my opinion the name should be “Real Swanseaola”.

With the current team, this side will struggle to get goals in the Premier League. Therefore Rodgers needs to spend some of that initial £40 million to get a couple of strikers in (he already bought Championship leading scorer Danny Graham from Watford earlier this week for a Swansea record transfer buy of £3.5m), as well as adding depth to the current squad. However, in my opinion more than 5-6 new players would destroy the team’s togetherness which is imperative if we are to stay up.

Before I leave you, here are several songs the Swansea fans sing during games:

• The Swansea City Song,
• Hymns and Arias,
• Bread of Heaven,
• Just Can’t Get Enough,
• Dale Cavese,
• Tom Hark,
• Fluffy Sheep.

Today was the day I have been waiting for since the FIWC final in Barcelona in May – my first look at Fifa 10. I’d read about all the new features and improvements, but you never really know until you try it out yourself. A note before I start – the build I played today is 3 builds newer than the demo which hits the Xbox Live Marketplace and PS3 Store tonight, and I was told there are a lot of improvements in it, compared to the demo which has a few keeper bugs in there still.

Ok, let’s get straight into some heavily hyped new features…are they as good as the reviewers say?

360 dribbing

First game I chose Arsenal and kicked off, passed back to Fabregas and started moving. What followed immediately was the first of many OMG’s. Personally, before today, I was skeptical about 360 dribbing, as far as I could tell in Fifa 09, I could move in any direction I wanted to, not just 8 ways. The first few steps Fabregas took blew that out of the water – he actually moved his body for every little amount of pressure I put on the left thumbstick, whatever angle I moved it. I know that is probably hard to picture, but the point is, even the most basic of movements makes this new feature evident – it affects every aspect of the game . No longer do you just push the left thumbstick left and run straight at goal, numerous times I thought I was doing that but found myself running at a 10 degree angle towards the corner flag because I wasnt angling it exactly enough. Then I thought to myself, “how can I use this to rape the defense?” and started dancing back and forth, trying to dribble through the whole opposing team. No good though, the defenders can move EXACTLY where they want too, and if you collide with an opposing player – you really collide. I gave away a lot more free kicks than usual, but they were realistic, because I was leaving my foot or shoulder in the tackle to hurt the attacker and stop his momentum. Watching my player raise his hand and admit to doing something dirty was highly amusing.

Quick Free Kicks

That reminds me, if you are given a free kick and are near the ball, your player will put his hand on the ball, while the action continues around him, and if you want, you can  quickly get on with play and catch your opponent napping. I know this has been in PES for a while, but seeing it used in Fifa was a dream come true for someone that has always detested free kicks and wanting to get on with the game quickly without giving the ball away.

1 v 1  /  Goalkeeping

I cant finish 1v1’s anymore. I played all the guys at EA who have been playing it for months, and they couldnt finish them either. The goalkeepers are now AWESOME. I tried casually walking up to the keeper and chipping as he dived at my feet – no good. I tried running diagonal across him and finessing it to the far corner – no good, he will save it or you will MISS (even with top players). I tried blasting it – no good (still miss). You really need to unlock the defense to such an extent that you have someone unmarked to pass to as you draw the keeper. If you are successful at chipping the keeper, and he gets a hand to it, with the ball bouncing in front of goal – the keeper will “accidently” take your striker out as you race towards the ball, leaving you both on the ground as the defense rushes back to clean up.  This will make attacking teams angry,  but after all, a scramble is a scramble.

Cross whoring

So if you’ve played me in Fifa09, you know that I perfected a really dirty cross to the back post which 7 times out of 10 would result in a goal. Of course this was going to be one of the first things I tried on Fifa 10 – the SCOOREY cross. It didnt work. Not only did it not work, the keeper caught it – similar to the anti-corner glitch that became popular in the last few months of Fifa09 where the keeper would catch the corners if people tried to go back post. This time, the defender doesnt need to do anything  – the keeper just catches it by himself if you try the glitch. Well done EA on that one. So I tried out a few other crosses. Normal crosses look way cool on Fifa 10. You can make them swerve and dip with the left thumbstick, and the strikers make intelligent runs to both posts much more often than in 09 when I had to practically force them. Heading is a little more difficult, but I did score a few nice ones, and alternatively you can chest it down and then go BANG, but this takes some luck as usually you will be challenged by a defender while trying this.

Chip Through ball

This was the most widely abused glitch on Fifa 09, run to the defense, and time a little chip through ball over the top, letting go when your striker was level with them, and watch the defense stop and look up like stunned mullets while CRonaldo or Rooney powers through on goal. All the talk was that this was no longer possible, but I was still able to do it the same way. The difference now is though, when you are past the defense it takes time and skill to control the ball, and while you are controlling it, the defense comes back or the keeper rushes up and there is nothing you can do before he smothers you.   The defenders no longer stand still watching the ball, so it is a genuine contest, but if the striker is faster/stronger, he will still get to the ball first. What happens after that though is much more random.

Tackle from behind

As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of unexpected fouls, as the collision detection is much more realistic. You can no longer body check someone who is running full speed at your goal and expect to get away with it. Your player will put his hand up and admit the foul and cop a yellow card – even if you didnt press slide tackle. But just when I  thought my  defenders were  being picked on, I lost the ball a couple of times and pressed tackle (slide or normal) straight away to see my player move his legs AROUND OR THROUGH the opponent, not touching him, but just the ball and winning it back straight away. I know it has been claimed for 2 years now that the ball was no longer attached to the person in possession, but this is the first time I’ve really believed it. You can make a play at the ball from anywhere and if you hit it cleanly, the ball bounces out of the attacker’s possession and where it goes is anyone’s business from then onwards!

Long  Range Cracks

The return of long range cracks aye? I think after the long range finesse shot glitches of 07 and 08, people were happy when 09 made it almost impossible to score from outside of the box (regularly). Who better to try out this new feature than Stevie Gerrard. I picked up the ball around 40 yards out on the right side of the field, cut in and BLASTED…no finesse, just blast, and into the top corner it sailed, diagonally past the outstretched arm of the diving keeper. Long range cracks are back baby!

Little things

Imagine the ball bouncing between two players, one on each team. Neither player has possession. On Fifa09, they would run into each other, chest to chest, and whichever player was stronger would magically come out of the contest with the ball, with the other guy left behind like a piece of trash. Now imagine the ball bouncing and the defender thowing himself at the ball with a karate kick because it is too high for a normal kick, but too low for a header. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS IN FIFA 10. The animations are amazing. There are so many new ones. Your player wont go to the ball in 09? In 10 he slides at the ball to clear it desperately, or slides at it to knock a pass on to someone else.

Through balls look real! It is not just hit and hope, it calculates the correct angle and puts the player who makes the intelligent run in behind the defense and ready to play the assist. Unlocking defenses is now not just a challenge, but it makes you say out loud ‘good ball’ because it is exactly what you envisaged (and sometimes surprisingly better).

There are lots of little things like this which you only notice after playing a few games – and I am sure there are many that I missed in my 3 or so hours that I was playing everyone in the EA office (Thanks EA for letting me stay longer than the original hour that was planned 🙂 ) Anyway, as you can probably tell, just like everyone else who has played this masterpiece, I cant go back to playing Fifa09 anymore. So while I wait for the demo, here are all the player ratings that I can remember. (Note that these might not be final, it was just before the transfer window shut, Dunne was still in Man City, but Madrid had all their Galacticos).

Barca

Messi 90, Ibra 89, Titi 85, Iniesta 88, Xavi 87, Yaya 82, Puyol 88

Real

Cronaldo 87 (89 if move him to striker), Kaka 88 (striker by default), Benzema 86, L.Diarra 84, Xabi 83, Pepe 84, Ramos 84

Man Utd

Rooney 87, Berba 85, Vidic 88, Rio 87, Hargreaves not fast anymore

Chelsea

Drogba 85, Anelka 85, Lampard 87, Ballack 85, Essien 85

Arsenal

RVP 84, Eduardo 83, Arshavin 87, Fabregas 87, Nasri 82, Rosicky 83, Walcott 82

Liverpool

Aquilani 83 (and very fast and skillful), Gerrard 88, Torres 88, Kuyt 84, Carragher 85

Man City

Adebayor 84, Robinho 83, Bellamy 80, Wright P 81, Ireland 78, Tevez 82, De Jong 77, Toure 87

Inter

Eto’o 87, Milito 85, Cambiasso 86, Mancini 81, Queresma 83, Motta 85, Maicon 84, Lucio 85, Samuel 85, Zanetti 82

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Australia’s remarkable run of results has come crashing to a halt at the Seoul World Cup Stadium as Korea downed the Socceroos 3-1  tonight in an International Friendly. With both teams safely through to the World Cup Finals as top of their Asian qualifying groups, this was a chance for both managers to test some new players, and Aussie coach Pim Verbeek rang in the changes in what was a homecoming for him, as he coached South Korea before taking the Australian job.

Australia’s new look back four were rattled by two early goals, both defensive mistakes, as first a stray Jason Culina pass was intercepted on the half way line, followed by a quick Korean breakaway as Park Chu Young put the first past Mark Schwarzer, and shortly afterwards, a free kick to the back post saw a goalmouth scramble and an uncontested backheel  flick by Lee Jung Soo give Korea a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

At this stage Australia were under all sorts of pressure and could have conceded several more goals before pulling one back off a set piece, as a Bresciano free kick was headed home by Leeds United defender Pat Kisnorbo to bring the Socceroos back into the game. From that moment forth, Australia regained their composure and were able to eventually enjoy periods of dominance over Korea, with Josh Kennedy coming close with a number of headers, using his height to first narrowly miss, and eventually hitting the post.

It was the Manchester United midfielder Ji-sung Park however who was at the centre of everything good Korea was doing, and ultimately it was he that killed the game off towards the end of the second half, as he picked up the ball near the half way line, and dribbled around Australia’s midfield enforcer Vince Grella, down the touchline beating two more players with an explosion of speed, finally able to produce a pinpoint cross for Ki Sung Yueng to nod home. Park’s inclusion by Sir Alex Ferguson in big matches has often been a talking point amongst pundits and fans, but Australians will not be amongst those that question the great manager after this display, culminating in a demonstration of power and skill that has rarely  been inflicted on a side that has risen to an all time high of 14 in the world this week.

Korea’s unbeaten run now stretches to 25 games, and they will be heading to the World Cup full of confidence. For Australia, there were positives after the slow start, and the introduction of Nicky Carle on the hour mark made a difference to the creativity levels and energy in the side, but they will be a different team when the absent Kewell, Cahill, Lucas Neill and Brett Emerton return. Their next match is a friendly with the Netherlands on October 11 at the Sydney Football Stadium.