Hatem Ben Arfa set for Newcastle return

We're as suprised as anyone.


Hatem Ben Arfa set to return to action for Newcastle - ESPN Soccernet

Hatem Ben Arfa will finally return to the Newcastle side almost a year after suffering a double leg break against Manchester City.

...Now he will pull on the black and white shirt on Wednesday night as Newcastle travel to struggling Championship side Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup.

It seems like the Carling Cup match will be his first introduction back into the team. I wouldn't expect him to start Premier League matches just yet. Pardew continues,

"What's important for him is to make sure he grabs the work-rate that we have got in the team. If he grabs that, he's got a good chance of getting into this team.

That's a shame with Rovers the visitors to St. James' Park this weekend.

However, when he does play, he'll be the attacking hub of the team. Likely he'll play off a lone-striker.

"He will have that number 10 role that Demba Ba did on Saturday and did very, very well for us, so that's where he's got good competition."

I've got Cabaye in my team at the moment, but if HBA comes through the Cup match unscathed, picking him up at 4.29 will be very tempting.  At the least he'll be a Barn Door selection with Newcastle's upcoming schedule including Rovers, @Wolves, Spurs, Wigan, @Stoke.

Newcastle Fall-Out Follow Up

In the wake of Joey Barton's being transfer listed by Newcastle United and Wayne Routledge signing for Swansea, I've been running the rule over the squad trying to piece together how they'll play in the upcoming season. This may get repeated in our season preview, but so be it. This is really more of a first draft documentation of my thought-process.

So it might be messy.

Analysis: Ba to NUFC

While Jeremy is our resident NUFC supporter, he is out of pocket this week so I'm going to take over with my thoughts on the transfer of Demba Ba from WHU to St. James' Park.  Taken as a move by itself, there is little to do other than like it a lot.  NUFC is desperate for strikers and Ba was very effective over the second half of last season at Upton Park.  If he can stay healthy, I don't have any trouble seeing him match the goal total of the man he is, in essence, replacing - Andy Carroll. 

What could go wrong with this move? A couple of things:

Premier League Roundup

Maybe Kuyt should just leave this kind of thing to the experts.

International break always brings with it injuries, real or imagined, that fantasy managers have to take into consideration for the next game week.  Some are big news, others are a bit more obscure.  This time, there is the added fun of the transfer window having just closed so there's also news about new players and their potential to start (and shine) for their new teams.  Here's what I've been tracking over the last few days:

Season Preview: Newcastle

Overall Outlook - Welcome back from exile to a team that, on talent, we could never figure out how they ended up in the Championship in the first place.  I guess they took dysfunctional to an entirely new level.  Hopefully for their sakes, they're ready to reverse some of the sins of their recent past and come back stronger (and perhaps more realistic) for their exile.  The talent on hand is certainly better than their fellow partners in promotion Blackpool and West Brom and it is also probably better than a few of the sides that finished the season toward the bottom of the Premier League last season but avoided the drop - we're looking at you Rovers, Wolves, and maybe West Ham.  That said, there's nothing that says that the Magpies' talent won't continue to be degraded by dysfunction once the going gets rough.  Still, my prediction is that they finish between 14th and 16th in their bounce back season.