Newcastle away has been a difficult fixture for quite some time now. In fact, Newcastle at all have proven tricky to beat. In the past three seasons, we have a grand total of two wins against them, with a pair of draws and two defeats to go along with them. That's not very good.
Combining the fact that we've generally been poor against the Magpies along with our incredible inability to get points in November, and things aren't necessarily looking too shiny for our trip up to the northeast on Saturday. Fortunately, history's a guide rather than a rule, and a pretty poor guide at that, and there's every reason to be feeling good about our chances of coming away with a win at St. James' Park.
The Blues are currently riding a nine game unbeaten streak, and have run off an impressive string of results in the past three games. Schalke? Beaten away. Manchester City? A 2-1 home win. Arsenal? Knocked out of the Capital One Cup. It's a nice little run, and it seems as though Jose Mourinho's little eggs are starting to hatch. Even Fernando Torres is looking useful these days.
Newcastle, on the other hand, have lost two in a row, and look to have exhausted themselves in midweek action against Manchester City, against whom they suffered an extra-time loss. Alan Pardew's side also suffered a derby defeat over the weekend when they were dispatched by Gus Poyet's Sunderland (with more than a little bit of help from another former Chelsea man in Fabio Borini).
Oh, and Chelsea are the better side. Shouldn't bee too problematic.
Date/Time: Saturday, November 2nd, 2013, 12:45pm GMT; 8:45am EDT; 6:15pm IST.
Venue/Location: St. James' Park, Newcastle, England.
On TV: BT Sports 1 (UK); NBC Sports Network (USA); ESPN India (India).
Online: NBC Sports Live Extra (USA).
Newcastle squad news: The Magpies are facing something of a crisis, injury-wise. Fabricio Coloccini is out. Steven Taylor is out. Paul Dummett is out. That leaves Newcastle in trouble -- Mike Williamson and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa are going to have to partner in defence just a few days after enduring 120 minutes of Manchester City. That's not so fun for them.
View from the enemy: Coming Home Newcastle.
Chelsea squad news: Everyone is fit and hunky-dory apart from Marco van Ginkel, who has not manage to magically recover from tearing his ACL. Get it together, Marco. The rest of the squad will probably look a lot like it did against Manchester City. Chelsea are fresh thanks to Mourinho making ten changes for the Arsenal game, so expect them to outwork their opponents here.