Pardew claims Chelsea fear Newcastle

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew believes Chelsea will be fearing their weekend trip to the Sports Direct Arena.

The clash on Saturday sees Andre Villas-Boas’ men, who have won just one of their past four games in all competitions, face a Newcastle side who are yet to be beaten at home this season.

The 50-year-old claims his team are ready for the challenge, and is predicting a tough encounter for the Blues.

“We’ve set up ourselves up for Chelsea,” Pardew said.

“We have one of the big clubs coming to us and they will be fearing coming to us in front of 52,000 Geordies.”

Last weekend saw Pardew’s men take arguably their most impressive point of the season, coming from a goal down to salvage a 1-1 draw at champions Manchester United.

“It’s not easy to go to Man United and win. Getting a point is magnificent,” he said.

“The attitude we had towards the game was positive and we tried to go there and win.”

“It was only when we went down to 10 men that we felt under pressure. I don’t think we allowed them to create any pressure in the first half.”

“We were fabulous. We were kicking toward the Stretford End and tried to unsettle them by giving them problems – and we did. I thought we were terrific.”

“The second half saw us concede a poor goal and from that moment it turned into an eventful game.”