Alan Pardew; “Nile will start. I think he’s probably the story of the last two or three months in terms of a positive. He’s been out of the papers, he’s been on time for the last eight to ten weeks and he’s put in application on the training ground”.
Alan Pardew might have had limited options with his available personnel tonight but he has still come up with the odd surprise, going for experience in his starting eleven.
With options severely limited by his Captain Colo’s suspension and numerous injuries, Alan Pardew sends out the following eleven; Krul, Simpson, Steven Taylor, Williamson, Santon, Tiote, Gutierrez, Anita, Ferguson, Ba, Cisse,
Alan Pardew, “Cheick was the best player in training (on Thursday) with the extra rest from not playing at the weekend. That will be a bonus for us and now Colo goes into that category”.
Both captain Fabricio Coloccini and Cheick Tiote start against Manchester United in tonight’s match, though Alan Pardew has resisted the temptation to play Papiss Cisse from the start and he’s on the bench.