Spanish fullback Cesar Azpilicueta says that his team mate Demba Ba will not be affected by any backlash he may receive from the Toon Army when he visits St James’ Park to play against his former club for the first time since his January switch to Chelsea.
The Senegalese forward was prolific for Newcastle during his stint there and scored 29 goals in his 54 Premier League appearances but many fans are angered by his decision to move to Stamford Bridge but Azpilicueta doesn’t think any boo-boys will faze him and Ba will remain focused on the task in hand.
Azpilicueta said:
“I don’t know how they (Newcastle fans) feel. Demba is a Chelsea player. He’s going to do his best for Chelsea. It’s true that he played very well there so I think they must be disappointed because he’s a very good player, but he’s going to be focused on the game.”
I’m expecting Ba to start tomorrow’s game seeing as Fernando Torres was given the chance against Brentford and Reading, so it’s about time that Ba got more than a few minutes off the bench despite the fact that Torres ended his goal drought in the FA Cup game and I thought he put in a decent performance versus the Royals, even though he was still panned by his critics when we dropped points.
Chelsea need a bit of a kick up the backside at the moment and in all honesty it isn’t really the goal scoring that’s the issue at the moment, it’s the lack of concentration and sloppiness that can lead to dropping points as we did at the Madejski Stadium on Wednesday night. Bringing John Terry back into the fold will be equally as important as we lack a leader at times and I hope the defender can help provide the boost we need.
Ba is about 15/4 to score either the first or last goal against Newcastle and 20/21 to score at any time, do you think the forward will come back to haunt his former club?
