Pardew expects Manchester United reaction

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew expects a reaction from Manchester United when his side travel to Old Trafford on Saturday.

David Moyes’ men were beaten 1-0 at home on Wednesday, as the former Everton boss tasted defeat against his old club.

The loss leaves United in ninth place and, while Pardew dismissed talk of a crisis at the defending champions, he is expecting Moyes’ charges to respond strongly.

“Every game is up for grabs this year and I think there’ll be a reaction from Man United to their defeat and likewise from us,” he said, having seen his own side beaten 3-0 by Swansea City in midweek.

“It’ll make for a game that is quite pressurised and therefore we need to have calm heads in that game and hopefully we can retain the ball better than we did at Swansea.

“They (United) had gone 12 games unbeaten up until that game so it’s not like there is a crisis there. They’ve lost a game, which anybody can do in the Premiership at the moment.

“Their reaction is going to be a little bit larger than ours.”

Pardew will be eager for his side to become more consistent on their travels, having lost four and won three of the last seven away games in the top flight.

He believes Newcastle need to play on any pressure that the hosts come under at Old Trafford if they are to record their first win there against Manchester United since February 1972.

“There’ll be a bit of pressure on them and we’ve got try capitalise on that and make it difficult for them,” Pardew added.

“If we can do that and get in the last period of the game and we could try and reverse a statistic that is Newcastle winning at Manchester United.”

Hatem Ben Arfa could return after illness, while Papiss Cisse is a doubt with a heel injury.