Newcastle United face Reading in the Premier League tomorrow and the Royals’ Latvian leader, Kaspars Gorkss, stands in the way of the Magpies. Here are the stats…
– Reading continued to struggle to find their form in the league against West Brom as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at the Hawthorns. Despite it being a relatively closely contested encounter, with Gareth McCleary and Jobi McAnuff in particular impressing, the Royals could not force their way through a very well organised West Brom defence.
– Jobi McAnuff delivered five dribbles in that game, a figure beaten only by Yao Gervinho and Santi Carzola for dribbles in a game so far this season.
– Kaspars Gorkss has been at the heart of some of Reading’s best defensive work this season. He’s won more tackles than any other Royal’s player with 8 on the EA Sports Player Performance Index.
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– A first half goal from Demba Ba proved enough to earn Newcastle a deserved 1-0 win over Norwich. The Magpies should have won by a much greater margin but they were unable to convert their chances, with Hatem Ben Arfa at the centre of most of them.
– Newcastle built their excellent start to last season on a great work rate, and are showing signs of returning to that form. They are now up to second in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for distance covered as a team with 306.66 miles covered.
– In fact, the 66.4 miles covered by Newcastle in their last game is second only to their opponent’s in the same game, Norwich, who covered 64.4 miles, as a team performance this season.
– Yohan Cabaye also covered more ground than any other Newcastle player has in an individual match this season with 6.83 miles.
– Demba Ba is clearly focused on forcing his way into Alan Pardew’s plans on a more regular basis. He’s been in great form in recent weeks and now sits 3rd on the EA Sports Player Performance Index for goals with 4.
Data courtesy of the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, the official player rating index of the Barclays Premier League.
