Newcastle vs. Crystal Palace
Venue: St. James’s Park
Kick off: 3pm
It is the Alan Pardew derby on Saturday (today) as the man in question takes his Crystal Palace side to St James’ Park – a venue that he called home for four years.
While Palace will be basking in the glory of having reached the final of the FA Cup for the first time since 1990, the pressure on hosting Newcastle United is massive.
They remain in the bottom three and matches are quickly running out, meaning that it is now win or bust.
Ordinarily, draws against Manchester City and Liverpool would be considered decent results for Newcastle.
However, such is the seriousness of the situation that the Magpies find themselves in, only victories will do if they are to preserve their Premier League status for another campaign.
Those two draws, which followed a morale boosting 3-0 win over Swansea City, have at least provided some light at the end of the tunnel for Rafael Benitez’s men, who are now just one point from safety.
Midfielder Jack Colback said: “It’s a massive game for us, and one we’ve got to win really. We’ve given ourselves a chance now, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do to make sure we stay in this league.”
One player that Benitez may turn to for this game is striker Papiss Cisse, given that the Senegalese frontman has scored in all three of his Premier League appearances against the Eagles.
Pardew split opinion during his four-year stint on Tyneside, but what cannot be denied is that the club enjoyed some good times under his stewardship.
They finished fifth in the Premier League in 2012 and also reached the quarter-finals of the Europa League before it all turned sour.
Newcastle possible starting lineup: Darlow, Anita, Mbemba, Lascelles, Dummett, Townsend, Tiote, Colback, Sissoko, Perez, Cisse.
Palace possible starting lineup: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare, Puncheon, Cabaye, Jedinak, Sako, Bolasie, Wickham.