Newcastle United Preview: Victor Moses Signs

What a busy day at Cobham Halls. Cesar Azpilicueta finally signed from Marseille and this evening Chelsea has completed the signing of Victor Moses from Wigan Athletic for a fee in the region of £9m. Bobby Di said, “We have a good and competitive squad and we are happy with it. We are looking to go into the season with this squad.”

Is Bobby Di throwing a ‘red herring’ to keep the hacks off his back, or are the potential deals for Hulk and Cavani or Hulk or Cavani really really dead in the water? Or can we expect a real sensational signing in the final hours on transfer deadline day?

Captain, Leader, Legend JT is rated doubtful for the visit of Utd after injuring his neck in the thrilling 4-2 win over Reading on Wednesday night.

Marko Marin is still out with a hamstring injury and Bobby Di said, “We have a few players with little niggly injuries from the last game.”

David Luiz is fit and is likely to partner Gary Cahill in the centre of defence if JT is ruled out.

Or will Ivanovic shift across and allow new-boy Azpilicueta to plunge straight into first team action at right-back.

If JT doesn’t make it, the central defensive duo will be the third different partnership in three games.

Now that must be some sort of record?!

Chelsea’s last league victory at The Bridge was in 2007, Chelsea winning 2-1.

Since then including one League Cup game, Newcastle are unbeaten in four matches drawing two and winning two and who can forget the two stunning strikes from Papiss Cisse last season. (I have tried… Ed)

The days where Chelsea used to win by 3, 4, 5 or even 6 appear to be consigned to the history books.

Although Newcastle played in Cyprus on Thursday night in an European qualifier with a vastly changed team, Bobby Di recognised the difficulties that Utd will bring.

He said, “We always have difficult games against Newcastle and they are a very good team with some great players.

“We haven’t beaten them at Stamford Bridge since 2007 so that tells you what kind of team they are. They have a lot of goals in their team with Ba and Cisse, and in midfield Ben Arfa and Cabaye and Gutierrez scoring every now and then.

“It is going to be a game when we have to defend very well but we also want our players to express themselves and create chances. But we certainly have to try to control Newcastle’s big threats when we can because they are lethal at times.”

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