Newcastle United have told Manchester City their title challenge will "crumble" before a partisan St James' Park crowd this weekend.
Newcastle United have told Manchester City their title challenge will "crumble" before a partisan St James' Park crowd this weekend.
City, who lead the Premier League on goal difference with two games to play, will move to the brink of their first championship for 44 years if they win at Newcastle on Sunday.
But following their victory at Chelsea on Wednesday, and with striker Papiss Cisse in record-breaking goalscoring form, Newcastle believe City's players may be unable to cope with the passion and intensity of the occasion.
Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul said: "It's going to be electric on Sunday at St James'. We've beaten Man United and Sunderland at home and I'm sure the fans will generate the same atmosphere as they did in those two games. That will make teams crumble hopefully.
"I wouldn't feel any guilt if we stopped City from winning the title. We're fighting for our position and to be where we are is an incredible achievement.
"We've beaten a lot of the top teams already this season and it's now a huge game on Sunday. City are challenging for the League and we're going for the Champions League.
"It's not going to be easy so we'll keep our feet firmly on the ground. Two games to go and one point off the top four, it's incredible."
Newcastle have only lost twice at home this season - to Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion - and are unbeaten there since December.
Cisse, who was the Premier League most expensive January transfer, scored two breathtaking goals in the 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge and has scored 13 goals in his first 12 games, breaking Alan Shearer's record for the best start by a striker in the Premier League.
"On Sunday we'll do the right things that we've been doing all season and if we're solid we can hit them on the break," continued Krul. "If you have a striker like Cisse in your team you'll win games. If you can keep a clean sheet he'll win you matches. His second goal against Chelsea was incredible, absolutely amazing."
Krul has the unenviable task of trying to keep Cisse from scoring in training and he revealed the 26-year-old is a perfectionist, the like of which he has never encountered before.
"He gets so upset when he misses a chance in training," added the Holland international. "Sometimes you'll see him arguing with himself for five minutes about how he missed it. It shows you what fantastic commitment he has. He wants to score all the time. He's world class and to get him for pounds 10 million, he is a worthy No 9."
Cisse looks the complete striker, equally dangerous from distance as he is operating in and around the six-yard box as a poacher.
Although prolific for Freiburg, an unfashionable club in Germany's Bundesliga, few predicted he would have such a phenomenal impact since his January move to Newcastle.
Jonas Gutierrez, the Argentina winger who will look to wreck the title dream of compatriots Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero at the weekend, claimed he "did not know you could score" a goal as good as Cisse's second against Chelsea.
His first, a volley after he had flicked the ball up to be hit on the edge of the area, was good, but the second in stoppage time was a swerving, curling, dipping drive with the outside of his boot from 25 yards and to the left of the area.
"It was a wonderful goal," said Cisse, who will play for Senegal against Great Britain in the Olympics. "It was the best goal of my career - I was so happy to score it. When the ball came to me, I was only thinking about scoring. It was an instinctive finish.
"I came to the Premier League to show my quality, and everything is going well. I'm enjoying my football - everything is good on and off the pitch."
Newcastle United's manager, Alan Pardew, has been delighted with his replacement for Andy Carroll and he will also have been pleased with the reaction to his side's defeat at Wigan.
Pardew was furious with his players after the 4-0 reverse at the DW Stadium and, in a heated tirade in the dressing room after the game, accused some of them of believing their own hype.
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