PICTURE: Magpies’ Magician holds all the cards for Newcastle

If Newcastle United are to get anything from their Premier League match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this evening, which the best sports books don’t think they can, their top players will need to play out of their skin. Tim Krul will need to be like a wall in goal, captain Fabricio Coloccini will have to marshal his troops at the back, Yohan Cabaye will need to control the ball in the middle of the park and Papiss Cisse will have to stick the ball into the back of the net. However, I believe that it is Newcastle’s magician Hatem Ben Arfa who holds all the cards for the Magpies in their next match.

Ben Arfa is one of those players who can make something happen out of nothing. In the first half against Wigan Newcastle couldn’t get him on the ball and when he was trying things it was in his own area of the pitch, where he couldn’t hurt the opposition.

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He ended up trying to start dribbles and attacks from deep, which his wonder goal against Bolton aside, are unlikely to come off. However, in the second 45 minutes the mercurial Frenchman began to get the ball in advanced positions and that’s when he started to look dangerous.

When Hatem has the ball at his feet he is so difficult to stop. On one or two occasions at the DW Stadium he showed glimpses of what will frighten the Chelsea defence. On one Newcastle attack he found himself in the box surrounded by defenders, but twisted and turned to make half a yard for himself, only to pull right-footed shot wide. Out wide on the left he beat his man with ease, much like he did for Newcastle’s opener against Stoke, only for his whipped-in cross to be headed onto the post by Cisse.

There is no doubting that he’s the joker of Newcastle’s pack. He’s unpredictable, he’s special. He’s Hatem Ben Arfa, Newcastle’s mercurial magician…

Hatem Ben Arfa the Magician