I’ve just had the misfortune of watching an interview on Sky Sports with the odious Fat Sam Allardyce. When asked about today’s match against Arsenal, he said without a hint of irony “With Arsenal’s style of play you know exactly what you’re gonna get”. Sadly for us, with Allardyce’s teams we know exactly what we’re going to get as well! And it won’t be pretty.

The match at St James’s Park will be very important for both managers – Allardyce is under immense pressure as talk of him being sacked increases. In contrast, Arsène will hope to take three points from our game in hand and increase our lead at the top of the table. Unfortunately we look certain to start the match without our two most creative players (Fabregas & Hleb) and Robin van Persie seems set to miss out yet again.

So - who will be Arsenal’s key man tonight? Many fans might think I’m daft for saying this but I think our key man won’t even be wearing Red & White. It will be the man in black (green?) - Mr Mike Dean - as his handling of the match will be absolutely crucial. If he clamps down immediately on the inevitable strong-arm tactics, we should be able to head back down the A1 with three points, even with a trio of world class players missing. Arsenal have nothing to fear from a robust ref as the only thing we’ll be kicking is the ball.

If however Mr Dean allows too much leeway to the more agricultural members of Newcastle’s squad, we will probably see a repeat of the awful trip to Geordieland in 2005 when Alan Shearer literally kicked us off the park, whilst only being booked by Dermot Gallagher in the last five minutes, by which time the damage was done.

Luckily for us, Mr Dean is top of the referees’ disciplinary table for this season, having shown 51 yellow and 4 red cards in his 10 matches so far. I never want to see a referee dominate a match but as sure as night follows day, we know exactly what kind of barrage awaits us on Tyneside. Especially from an Allardyce team containing footballing purists like Joey Barton, Alan Smith and Nicky Butt, fighting to salvage their poor season.

To compensate for their own shortcomings, Fat Sam’s teams always stretch the rules way beyond breaking point when Arsenal are in town and tonight will be no exception. I’m quite sure thee likes of Messrs Gallas, Toure, Flamini and Eboue can look after themselves but let’s hope the ref allows footballing ability to decide the outcome, not Allardyce’s usual excessive tactics.

After all the rough stuff Arsenal have received from Fat Sam’s teams over the years, I don’t think too many Gooners would shed a tear if a scintillating Arsenal victory helped Allardyce through the managerial trap-door.

Fingers crossed!!