No Surrender

Twenty-two years to the day since they last won at Stamford Bridge, damage limitation will be the last thing on Newcastle United minds, writes Stuart Rayner.

AS the Premier League’s top-four clubs have become increasingly isolated from the rest, so the dilemma facing managers when they travel to them grows.

England’s top-flight is, according to some, the best in the world because any team can beat any other on their day. Without such an attitude there would be no point players even taking to the field; but at times in the 21st Century you can be forgiven for asking if it is still the case.

It is 22 years to the day since Newcastle United’s supporters last returned from Stamford Bridge with a victory to celebrate. For much of that time Chelsea and Newcastle were been broadly on a par, bobbing between Divisions One and Two at times, comfortably established in the mid-table or even the Champions League-chasing pack at others. Then came Roman Abramovich.

Since the Russian oligarch pumped money into the West London club like a chancellor trying to prop up a bank, Chelsea have become – to use a Jose Mourinho phrase – “untouchables” on their own patch. Last month Liverpool ended a remarkable four-year, 86-game unbeaten league run at Stamford Bridge but when Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side set about dismantling Sunderland in their next home fixture, the sense was they were simply starting out on another eye-watering sequence.

With the odds now so heavily stacked against them, it is little surprise some teams take on Chelsea with more than a tinge of trepidation. Another phrase from Mourinho’s back catalogue of memorable quotes has entered footballing lexicon to describe the practice of showing up at a ground (especially Chelsea’s) in search of nothing more ambitious than a 0-0 draw. But there is no question of Joe Kinnear asking Newcastle to follow the lead of his old club, Tottenham Hotspur, and “park the bus” in front of Shay Given’s net this afternoon.

“I would think they are the favourites to win the title this year, they have world-class players all over the pitch and an excellent manager,” the former defender says of last season’s Premier League and Champions League runners-up. “They tore Sunderland apart recently so we can not go down there and play an open game. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going down to park the team bus in front of the goal for 90 minutes trying to keep the score down. I’m not going to Stamford Bridge thinking only about damage limitation, that has never been my style as a manager.”

Many a boss has started a game with the boldest of intentions and come to regret it by full-time. But in Kinnear’s case bravado and logic make good bedfellows.

The Magpies are without centre-back Steven Taylor and have problems on the left of their defence, where Jose Enrique is out of form and low on confidence but no other squad member is totally comfortable taking his place. At the opposite end, they have two in-form strikers in Shola Ameobi and Obafemi Martins and a captain champing at the bit to remind England manager Fabio Capello why Michael Owen is regarded as the country’s deadliest finisher.

With Chelsea actually performing better away this season – the seven points they have dropped to date have all been on their own patch – Kinnear will not allow his players an inferiority complex.

“I’m going down there believing we are good enough to get something out of the game,” he says. “They have got some excellent players, but so have we. Instead of worrying all the time about what they can do to us, we have to remember we have good quality players who can hurt them as well.

“The biggest problem some teams have when they play one of the Big Four is they go there with fear, the worry they are going to get beaten heavily. They go there too negative and end up just trying to keep the score down and that’s a mistake. You can’t be scared when you play these games, you have to look forward to the challenge.”

Kinnear speaks with experience, not just from his time managing the perpetually-discounted Wimbledon, but also his playing days.

“I used to love playing against George Best because it was a test for me,” says the former Republic of Ireland international. “I was the right-back at Spurs, he was the left winger at Manchester United. You find out about yourself. You have to be positive, you have to try and take the game to them.

“I’m not saying we’re going there intending to play all-out attack, but we have the pace to worry them and we will look to get something out of the game.

“I’ve never been one to back away from a challenge, and this isn’t about damage limitation. I’m going there to get a result. It would be a fantastic scalp. Newcastle have never won there for 22 years, but records are there to be broken.”