Newcastle v Man Utd (Premier League)
I remember, many moons ago, when Newcastle were our closest title rivals and they beat us 5-0 in this very fixture (that match was actually over 15 years ago now but for many a United fan, it can be remembered as vividly as yesterday).
However, it would appear that Newcastle have been made to pay for that one ten-fold as we have generally beaten them ever since – their only other win over us was way back in 2001 when they ran out 4-3 winners in a match made infamous by Roy Keane’s attempted punch at Alan Shearer!
Of course, they somehow held us to a 1-1 draw just over a month ago at Old Trafford but that was when they were playing well and I think it is fair to say that luck wasn’t on our side that day.
Newcastle started this season extremely well and for a time, the Toon Army were tottling off to bed with little dreams of Champions League football next season but it was probably only a matter of time before the run ended and they found themselves in a more “Newcastle-like” position in the league and they currently sit in seventh place so by my reckoning, they still have a place or two to drop.
Now, having said that, they will probably stuff us 5-0 again tonight but I’m tending to think that we’re not going to suffer two defeats in a row.
As for our team selection, there were a couple of surprises in the Blackburn match with Anderson and Rafael coming back from injury and, of course, Rooney being dropped but I expect him to be back for this one tonight with possibly the in-form Berbatov alongside him.
The defence and midfield remains as tricky as ever to predict so I’m not even going to attempt it.
The main thing is that we need three points tonight in order to stay in touch with Manchester City who, of course, beat Liverpool 3-0 last night to go three points clear again.
I think we can do it tonight. Our away form has been extremely good this season (in fact, we have the best away record in the league by quite a margin) whilst Newcastle’s recent home form has been patchy.
The hard thing to predict is whether or not we will be able to continue our run of clean sheets in away games. We have won the last five without conceding a single goal because if we can do that then I believe that this will be a low scoring game – possibly 1-0 or 2-0 to Manchester United. However, I think that the run will come to an end tonight and we will need to score at least two to pick up the three points.
For this reason, I’m going to have a stab at the Over 2.5 Goals market.
The bet is 2 points Over 2.5 Goals @ 1.87 with Bet365.





