Why the hell are we not the favourites for this cup tie. Everyone including most mags are scared of Arsenal. Why!? We have only had one encounter with them this season. We won it 3-1 and that of course was away from home. Then we look at the league. We are ABOVE them having played an equal amount of games. On top of all this Arsenal have even more games than us crammed into this time of the season because of the CL. We should beat them easily. They should be scared of us. I'm not saying we should show them no respect and I realise this is the best team left in the cup (except us). But this is by no means an automatic exit for Newcastle.

Personally I think the FA cup game against the Arse is probably more important than the league game against Arsenal because if we loose then we can no longer win the FA cup.

If we drop 3 points to Arsenal we'll still win the premiership.

I'll only be happy with the double ;)

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

Answers

Jim I agree with most of what you say, however the thing with Arsenal is that they haven't lost away all year. On their day they are a remarkably strong team, although so are we. One bright note though is that arsenal normally don't do well at our place, in order for the bookies to make us the favourite they would have to make us favourites for the cup. Which of course they would never do. Even if we do beat them they'll still make chelsea a better bet than us.

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

Who the hell wants to be favourites? When we went to Leeds and Arsenal these were both nailed on home wins. Good. Let the punters establish Arse as racing certainties for the cup. Arse haven't lost away? I don't think Leeds had lost at home. Let's get a draw at SJP. We always win in London. :-)

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

Arsenal have a jinx on all the sides in the Premiership, not one single side has managed to beat them on their travels, can't ever see their run ending

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

Easy peasy Mac - draw @ SJP and we win in London as always.

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

It's a bugger isn't it - just after we start our four year unbeaten run in London they flippin' cup final is in Baadiff!

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

If Arsenal have all their best players available they won't be easy to beat, but i reckon it might be a very tight match. We should avoid a rematch. Yes we won 3-1 at Highbury, but it's not like we done that very often. If we do beat Arse and Tottenham beats Chelsea we can take it home.

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

If Arsenal have all their best players available

Hah! There's always a minimum of 6 of them serving suspension at any one time. Cloggers. :-)

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

We can add their central defender Stepanovs to the list - he obviously believed he was taking on the Everton atack single-handedly in a bout of Geco-Roman wrestling last week ?

Clo&&er!! (with apologies to Clarky)

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

So you've seen Clarky playing football, have you LT? He tries to keep his style of play quiet, but having seen him in the Straabeery, I guess it's easy to recognise a clogger.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2002

Fat Ron Atkinson has already given us the kiss of death by tipping us against any 'weakened' Arse team - if they're at full kelter it'll be a draw, says Oracle Ron.

I don't see any reason to fear Arse at SJP - we had our share of luck away in the league, but we also MADE our own luck. Robert's brilliant goal was just wonderful too. Besides, this has been a year of changing fortunes for NUFC. I reckon Arse won't fancy a trip up Norf and with one eye on their Chumps League fixture they may drop some of their temperamental stars to keep them fresh for the 'more important game'.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2002

There is no reason to fear the Arse, its our defence that I fear!

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2002

It's our midfield's defensive capabilities that terrify me.

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2002