Eddie Newton blog

Our newest columnist, Eddie Newton, gives us his thoughts on West Brom’s recent victory over Coventry, the criticism labelled at Gianfranco Zola and the mouth-watering Champions League tie betyween Arsenal and Barcelona...

Hello again.

West Brom’s last match

We had a good win against Coventry at the Hawthorns on Wednesday and after the injury problems he has had, I was really pleased to see Stephen Reid getting the winner. First half, we were nice and comfortable. In the second half, Coventry put us under a little bit of pressure, but we stuck in there and got a 1-0 victory.

We are at that stage of the season where players are picking up injuries and dropping out, but we are dealing with that as a squad, as best we can.

We are not relaxing one little bit. The whole squad, the whole club is just maintaining its focus and that focus is on promotion, although we will continue to push for the title. We’ve got a bit of a gap on Nottingham Forest now, but we want to close the gap on Newcastle and we won’t give up.

Gianfranco Zola

My former team-mate has come in for some criticism this week and it is hard not to sympathise with him. Gianfranco is a gentleman and a true professional in every sense of the word. He will be hurting more than anyone after West Ham’s recent defeat because he just wants to be successful. It will be a real test of his managerial skills because there are only seven or eight games left and they are in a real dogfight and they need to fight for every point. As a club, West Ham like to play good football, as does Gianfranco, but when you’re in a relegation battle, the only thing that matters is getting points on the board. I’m sure Gianfranco is doing all he can to change the situation at the current moment.

Arsenal v Barcelona

This is a game that I am really looking forward to. Anyone who loves football will be looking forward to it and you almost wish it was the Final. It’s a game where you’d expect to see some great football from both sides and I’m sure it will be because some of the world’s best players will be on the pitch. I’m sure both legs will be fantastic spectacles.

Our newest columnist, Eddie Newton, gives us his thoughts on West Brom’s recent matches, England’s victory over Egypt and the passing of Keith Alexander.

Hello again.

After two defeats, to Bristol City and Reading, it was vitally important that we bounced back against Derby County last week and it was great to get the win.

We knew it was going to be difficult because they have been on a good run of late. We knew not to take them lightly and they stifled us quite a bit in the first half, but the second half we picked up and although we conceded first, we did well to get the three goals.

We have played a lot of games recently and we had obviously played Reading in The FA Cup the Wednesday before so we had a lot of tired bodies out there. We played Gabriel Tamas at right-back as he was our only viable option and I feel a bit sorry for him because the boy was exhausted, but he put another good shift in and we ended up with the right result.

FA Cup exit

The Fifth Round Replay defeat to Reading was very hard to take, not least because we were leading right up until the third minute of added time, but also because we conceded from such an elementary mistake.

I think a bit of tiredness had already begun to creep in and our decision making could have been a lot better, but we had a sit down with the boys ahead of the Derby game and underlined the importance of every game from then until the end of the season. I’m confident they’ve taken it all on board.

QPR – and Neil Warnock

We are now preparing to take on QPR on Sunday and we are expecting a very difficult game because the players will no doubt want to get off to a good start for their new manager, Neil Warnock.

Neil is a wily old fox. He’s been in the game a long time, he knows the League really well and he knows what he’s doing. I’m sure he’ll be relishing his first game at Loftus Road and will want to get off to a good start.

England 3-1 Egypt

I thought it was a good win against a decent Egypt side. We didn’t start off the best but a couple of substitutions and a little bit of extra quality at the right times soon made the difference.

Egypt are very disciplined, they all work hard for each other and it was a bit of a difficult game, especially in the first half, but it was good to see the boys come through with the win.

I fully understand the benefit behind playing an African team in preparation for the World Cup, with Algeria waiting in our group. Algeria have some skilful players but I don’t think they are as disciplined as the Egyptians.

Keith Alexander

Finally, I was shocked to hear of the sad and untimely passing of Keith Alexander on Wednesday and my thoughts go out to his family.

Unfortunately our paths never really crossed, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about the man. I know people that have played under Keith and they speak very highly of him. He will be a big loss to the game.

Hello everybody.

Over the next few months I’ll be giving you my views on a host of football issues, but seeing as this is my first blog, I thought I’d start by summing up my season so far...

West Bromwich Albion

There are only a few months left of the season and mine and Roberto’s eyes are firmly fixed on promotion to the Premier League.

This season has gone well for us so far and we have definitely enjoyed our first season in the Championship. Slowly but surely, we have made our way up the League and played some very good football along the way, something that we have tried to continue from Tony Mowbray’s time at the club. Roberto and me have always liked to play attractive football and it has really suited us coming to a club like West Brom where all the players are used to playing that way as well. It was just a case of making a few adjustments to the way we like things.

No disrespect to anyone at MK but when we came to the Hawthorns we were blessed with some really talented, international footballers and they are showing us what they can do week in, week out and things are coming together quite nicely.

West Brom is a very well run football club, we have a great following, a good team and that is a fantastic platform for us to hopefully go and excel.

The Championship

When we first came here, we were under no illusions as to how difficult the Championship would be and that has definitely proved to be the case. It’s incessant; it’s just game after game, after game. We knew it was going to be tough, but it was about managing it throughout the season. We haven’t got the biggest squad, but we are doing the best we can.

Looking at our last match, against Cardiff City, I was really impressed with how we did. It’s not an easy place to go and we had a few injuries to contend with and we still played really well and came away with what I believe to be a good 1-1 draw.

Working with Robbie

We want the same things but we go about it in different ways. Robbie likes to sit back and analyse a lot, whereas I like to coach and point things out from the sideline. But we both sit down together, look at previous matches, prepare for upcoming ones and try and improve the team on a day-to-day basis. Playing at a club like Chelsea, we are used to pressure and regardless of the pressure of a promotion challenge, we put enough pressure on ourselves to win games.

The FA Cup

Everyone wants to do well in The FA Cup and if we can get through our replay against Reading, we all feel we’ve got a good chance.

Wednesday’s replay is an opportunity for everyone at the club because it’s not very often that you’ll get a good run in The Cup. We’re doing well in the League and we’d like to match that with a Cup run, because it’s good to maintain a winning mentality.

It was disappointing to concede such a quick goal in the original match at the Madejski, but we recovered well and it shows how far we’ve come, because in the early part of the season we would have tried to force the issue, by playing silly balls and probably making mistakes, but we stuck to the game plan and the boys showed that they really believed that they could pull it back. In fact, we said afterwards that at one stage, we could only see ourselves winning the match, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. However, lately the boys have been really positive about what they are doing and we’re hoping to continue that in the replay.

We don’t like to look too far ahead, obviously and we know that we need to focus and beat Reading first, but everyone at the club has got half an eye on a game against Aston Villa in the next round. If we both win our replays, I think that will be a great game. We’re both good footballing sides, it will be a keenly contested derby and it will be played at a high intensity, and I know our boys are keen to mix it with a Premier League side because that’s where we’re aiming to get to for next season.

Chelsea

Having coached the Chelsea Academy side, I obviously still keep in touch with people at the club and I was really pleased to see them make it through to the Semi-Final of The FA Youth Cup this week.

At a club like Chelsea there’s a lot of pressure on players to perform and do well and the younger players know that. They must be seen to be reaching the latter stages of competitions and I know the coach, Dermot Drummy, and all the boys are enjoying that pressure. The players will need that big-club mentality so it’s good to see them performing well on the pitch so early in their careers.

As for the first team, I think they look very strong in all departments. In terms of the Premier League and the Champions League they will certainly be there or thereabouts. Their team is just packed with quality from front to back; the likes of Cech, Terry, Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Drogba. These players know how to win Championships, they’ve been to major Finals and can deal with that pressure.

At the start of the season, I said Barcelona would win the Champions League again, but the more I look at the English sides, the more I think they’ve got a really good chance. Man United got a great result against Milan on Tuesday night and Wayne Rooney is firing on all cylinders at the minute. I’ve already listed the players that Chelsea have at their disposal, but it’s the intensity of the English game which I think could be a key factor in the destination of the European Cup, which I think the likes of Barca, Inter and Real Madrid are perhaps lacking.

As for the Premier League; who do I think will win it? If I don’t say Chelsea, I’ll get killed the next time I go back there! But I genuinely think they’ve got a great chance. I think it’s between United and Chelsea, but the difference could be the fact that so many players are capable of winning games for Chelsea, but if you take Rooney out of the United team, I just don’t think you can say the same about them at the minute.

That’s all from me for now. I’m off to prepare for Sunday’s game at Bristol City...