Manchester United v Newcastle United

Match Preview – Manchester United v Newcastle United
Saturday 26 November 2011 3pm

The year 1972 seems an awful long time ago, in fact a lifetime (so far…) for many of us!

If Newcastle fail to win on Saturday though it will mean that at least forty years will have passed since the Magpies beat them on their own pitch.

We have gone there in the Keegan/Robson days with better teams than we have now but it has to happen sometime, doesn’t it?!!

Yes City took the points last week but with a diminished squad we still feel that Newcastle were always in the match and if Ba had taken that gilt-edged chance at 0-0 or even when Hatem Ben Arfa hit the post at 0-2, who knows.

Speaking of our enigmatic Frenchman, we think that the 14-1 at BET365 (who are currently offering up to £200 in free bets for new customers!) are too good to ignore for Ben Arfa to score the first goal, especially as he’s likely to take any free-kicks to the right-hand side of the box. Plus his direct style will always make him a decent bet when he runs at defences.

Newcastle’s form over the last six league games reads four wins, one draw and that City defeat. With Manchester United’s less than solid defending and hopefully the return of Tiote and Obertan into the starting eleven, we feel that will valuable extra protection to the back four which was maybe a problem last week. With that extra pace and strength the 4-1 on the draw at BET365 definitely looks good value, especially if Rooney misses out as predicted.

For smaller stakes, Steven Taylor has already scored twice this season and on set-pieces is always a threat, so how about (S) Taylor to score any time in a 2-1 Newcastle win at 155-1 with BET365 and finally end (nearly) forty years of hurt?