Newcastle United meet bitter rivals Sunderland in the Premier League at St James’ Park on Sunday.
Sunderland will be rubbing their hands together after watching Newcastle’s capitulation in Barcelona last night, thinking they’ll be facing a side with a broken spirit.
The 7-2 humiliation is certainly going to be a difficult result to shrug off, but if ever there was a game where form counts for nothing, it’s the derby.
Eddie Howe spoke about being fully focused on Sunday’s game just minutes after the final whistle blew in Barcelona, and Anthony Elanga had a similar response.
Speaking after our dismal defeat at the Nou Camp (via The Chronicle), Anthony Elanga promised to repay the fans for their support, saying that the players ‘owe them’ a win after Wednesday’s 7-2 collapse in Barcelona.
The Swede has described it as the “biggest game” of our season and the perfect opportunity to respond, not just to our second half collapse on Wednesday but our 1-0 defeat at Sunderland back in December.
“We have to (respond). For the fans who travelled (to Barcelona) and sang for 90 minutes even when we were five or six goals down, we owe them.
“We can’t dwell on this. We’ll look at the mistakes, but the focus has to switch entirely (to Sunday). That’s a game for the city, and we have to show a reaction.”
“It should give us motivation again, because we’re (back) in the Premier League, and we want to keep the momentum we’ve had the last two games and building it.
“It’s the biggest game of the season. We owe it to the fans as well, especially (from) the first time we played Sunderland this season. We need to use the energy and momentum we’re building and make sure St. James’ is bouncing.”
Quite often we’ve said that all we want to see from our lads is a fight, but Sunday’s game is one where the fight isn’t good enough; the result matters.
We’d actually take playing like a Sunday League side as long as we came away with three points. And that actually goes for every game left this season.
Our hopes of qualifying for Europe are still alive, although it’s likely going to be one of the Europa tournaments rather than the Champions League. To do so, we’re going to have to win practically every game.
There’s no room to be cute about it now; we’ve just got to get out there and find a way to win, whether that’s hitting top gear or just doing the basics well to get over the line.