Stack The Deck (against someone or something) and stack the cards (against someone or something) to arrange things against someone or something.

(Originally from card playing; stacking the deck is to cheat by arranging the cards to be dealt out to one's advantage.)

tv. to arrange things secretly for a desired outcome. (From card playing where a cheater may arrange the order of the cards that are to be dealt to the players.)

Another quiet day at St. James’ Park as MP for the City of Newcastle Upon-Tyne Chi Onruwah forwards an NUFC-fans petition to Parliament about the lack of backing manager Rafa Benitez is receiving in the transfer market from club owner Mike Ashley.

Personally, I’d ask the House of Commons why Newcastle United do not play on a level playing field in terms of refereeing decisions in The Premier League – the black and whites have seen no opposition red cards since January, 2014 and a Premier League low of just two penalties in the last two seasons the club has played in the top flight.

Yet maybe MPs are not aware of or prepared to look into the whistle-blowing that sports tycoon Mike Ashley informed authorities about the price-fixing of England and Manchester United Umbro football shirts in 2000 involving then DW Sports owner Dave Whelan which Manchester United and The Football Association were fined £1.6M and £158,000 respectively for “anti-competitive agreements”. (Click here to read the full story)

Speaking of “Anti-Competitive Agreements”...

The day the new fixture list comes out is a day cherished by all football fans – its a clean slate, a fresh start, a new season of hopes and dreams, a blank canvas of football in which anything is possible.

Yet for fans of Newcastle United, its become not just a day of looking forward to seeing which is the first away game or who we host at St. James’ Park first or in days gone by, when do we play Sunderland, its become for some an annual dread at how hard a hand the Premier League has given us.

True to expected form, Newcastle United were given the hardest start in the top flight and have to play five of last season’s Top 6 Premier League sides in the first eight games including all of the Top 3 teams and both Manchester clubs away from St. James’ Park.

The argument, ‘You have to play all the teams anyway’ is null and void in a professional sport when winning momentum is key and a good or bad start can decide the trajectory of a season or a football club’s destiny.

Think of a 100M running race with 3 hurdles – if one runner has a 50m run before facing the first hurdle, say at 60m, 70m and 80m they will have gathered momentum to leap the hurdle when they reach it yet the runner in the lane next to them with hurdles at 10m, 20m and 30m cannot get the speed up to jump.

Likewise, a modern Premier League football team with a cluster of extremely tough games at the start of a new season will find it hard to get out of the blocks – even beating one or two of the harder teams will leave the club trailing in points and momentum to the team with easier games.

The kind draw that the England national football team saw open up in Russia in The World Cup just gone showed the importance of easier fixtures as confidence builders and momentum-gatherers and Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions could easily have found themselves in the final or even coming home with the trophy had they realised their luck.

Back to the Premier League and Newcastle – in the 2011/2 season, Alan Pardew’s Magpies after facing Arsenal (who finished 4th in 2010/11) on the opening day, did not play another Top 6 side in the first six games, playing 5th placed Spurs in the seventh fixture and managed to gain real momentum before playing the previous season’s Top 3 – Man City, Chelsea, Man United - in succession in November by which time the club were established in the top 6.

Newcastle enjoyed a good start and built on that momentum throughout the course of the season finishing fifth top narrowly missing out on The Champions League places yet qualifying for The Europa League and Alan Pardew won the duel Manager of the Year awards from the League Managers Association and The Football Writers.

With Newcastle now in the second season following promotion like 2011/2, it stands to reason that a similarly kind fixture list start might have presented itself to Rafa Benitez’s Magpies yet no such luck – in fact quite the opposite.

Its almost as if the wins against Man United, Arsenal and Chelsea at St. James’ Park in the run-in to finishing 10th last season set alarm bells ringing at Premier League HQ that Newcastle might again pose a threat to the established European club and Champions League spots following a good start a la 2011/2.

So a punishing start was arranged by The Premier League FIXture list comparable to the club’s 2015/16 start when Steve McClaren’s Newcastle faced the unenviable task of playing six of the previous season’s Top 8 sides in the first 8 games including the previous season’s Top 4 sides.

The result was three points from the first eight games which put Newcastle bottom of the Premier League and then the tenth game was away to local rivals Sunderland, whom disgraced FA rule-breaker Sam Allardyce was taking over for his first game and enjoyed a terrible refereeing decision in his favour and the sending off of Fabricio Coloccini after a half Newcastle had dominated to kill any momentum NUFC had gained by beating Norwich City 6-2 in the previous, arguably first winnable fixture - & ultimately relegation…

Again, after a decent season last campaign, Newcastle face a stacked deck at the start of the season specifically designed to halt the potential momentum of a good start to the season that could threaten the Top 7 & European places.

Its not just Newcastle that are targetted and warded away from breaking into the established elite any time they show any real ambition or real progress.

eg Everton were taken over by new owners and spent heavily last summer having finished 7th in the 2016/17 campaign under Ronald Koeman on the bedrock of four wins in their first five games against West Brom, Stoke, Sunderland and ‘Boro whom they had beat to set up a terrific Premier League season and qualify for The Europa League.

There was to be no repeat last season for along with the entanglements of The Europa League, itself a process designed to keep teams out of the CL elite, they were matched with 4 of the previous season’s top 6 teams in their first 5 games – Man City, Chelsea, Spurs & Man United consecutively followed Stoke on the opening day. Predictably they found themselves bottom after five matches, a manager sacking followed and disarray.

Has such a scenario been arranged for Newcastle or is it just FA-te?

Remember, the prestigious top spots of modern football are worth hundreds of millions of pounds in prize money, TV money and sponsorship alone and, collectively, are worth tens of billions of pounds globally - no wonder it is seemingly a closed shop monopoly.