Alan Pardew believes his Newcastle United will face one of the world's best goalkeepers today. Pardew rates Manchester United No1 David de Gea in the class of Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer.

"There's such a contrast in goal at the moment - Jak (Alnwick) is on his third Premier League start and De Gea is pushing Neuer for the title of being the best goalkeeper in the world," he said.

"He's a fantastic shot-stopper. He still has parts of his game that he wishes to develop, but in one-on-one situations he excels.

"He covers a lot of the areas goalscorers want to score in by doing so with his feet and his hands.

"He makes it very difficult to score, so you have to go with power and go for the corners."