Newcastle United ace Hatem Ben Arfa is hoping to repeat history against Sunderland today.

A 1-0 derby victory on Wearside in August last year proved the catalyst for that surge up the table, and France international Ben Arfa is looking for a similar boost this weekend.

He said: "We are confident because we know we have very good players in our squad. That's why we are confident.

"In the Premier League, we have to win to get more confidence. In the last few games, we didn't take a lot of points.

"We have to get our confidence back. We have to win consecutive games to have high confidence.

"We have very good players. On the pitch, everyone wants to do very well in this game.

"All the fans want to play this game, but they can't, and we going to give all our energy for this game."