Newcastle United boss Chris Hughton admits he would have liked to begin the season with a home game instead of a daunting trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford (Newcastle 12/1 to beat Manchester United).
The Magpies are now back in the English top flight following one season in the Championship after stand-in boss Alan Shearer failed to keep them in the Premier League towards the end of the 2008-2009 campaign.
The North-East giants ran away with the Championship last season and will hope to re-establish themselves in the top division having surrendered their top-flight status in May 2009 following sixteen successive seasons in the Premier League.
Despite calls to strengthen the squad, Hughton has only brought in Sol Campbell, James Perch and Dan Gosling to date, with just a couple of weeks to go before the transfer window closes until January.
Newcastle and United had a number of memorable encounters during Kevin Keegan’s time in charge at St James’ Park, when the Tynesiders were a match for the majority of Premier League teams, but their star has waned in recent years culminating in relegation just over 12 months ago.
But a wave of optimism is now back at the club and they will be looking to cement their place in the best league in Europe this season.
Hughton admits the fixture computer could have been kinder to his side but he is looking to draw on the performance of the players a couple of seasons ago, when they drew 1-1 with Sir Alex Ferguson’s team on the opening day at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ (Man Utd 2/9 to beat Newcastle).
“Looking at Manchester United and the squad they’ve got and the quality they’ve got, it will be a massive challenge for us,” he said. “But this is what we worked so hard for last season to get straight back up into this division.
“It’s probably not the ideal choice. I think the ideal choice would have been to have a home game but we have been there before on the first game of the season two seasons ago and we certainly gave a very good account of ourselves so we’re aware that everything’s possible even though we’re massive underdogs.”
United are out to win back the Premier League trophy after losing out to Chelsea in the race for the title last term and they have already shown that they are well up for the fight with victory over Carlo Ancelotti’s side in the Community Shield last weekend.
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