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Michael Owen has good and bad news for Newcastle United

3 years ago
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Michael Owen has been talking about Newcastle United.

Speaking ahead of Friday night’s match at St Mary’s.

The good news is that Michael Owen expects Newcastle to score, however, the bad news is that he doesn’t expect NUFC to move into fourth, instead having to settle for a draw away at Southampton.

Not that most Newcastle fans would see a point as a bad outcome in this match, considering they are up against a side who have the fourth best Premier League form in the past ten and a half months since Christmas 2020.

Indeed, they have only lost two of their last 14 Premier League matches with eight wins and four draws, picking up 28 points from a possible 42.

In their last 14 PL games, Steve Bruce’s side have four wins, four draws and six defeats, picking 16 points from a possible 42.

Michael Owen bases his prediction of a low scoring draw on how Southampton have got on at home, compared with Newcastle in their away matches.

However, the way these results have come about this season have been very different.

Newcastle have won 2-0 at West Ham and got 1-1 draws at both Wolves and Tottenham, however, it has been laughable really at how few decent chances they have had. The four goals in the three matches have come from just five shots on target in total (two at West Ham, one at Tottenham and two at Wolves).

In contrast, Southampton have had 20 shots on target in their three home matches, as they lost 5-2 to Spurs (seven shots on target), won 2-0 against both Everton (six on target for Southampton) and West Brom (seven on target).

The Spurs defeat was a bit of a strange one as Southampton still had the better of all the stats (total shots, shots on target, possession and corners), whilst Spurs scored five goals from six shots on target.

Newcastle have conceded the most shots of any team in the Premier League so far this season and have had the fewest on target themselves in the division. Can NUFC and Steve Bruce really keep getting away with it unless they change from the ultra negative tactics?

Michael Owen talking to BetVictor:

“Southampton host Newcastle on Friday night with both sides coming into the match off the back of two good results.

“The Saints dispatched Villa 4-3 whilst Newcastle beat Everton 2-1, so each side will fancy their chances here.

“Goals have been at a premium on the road for the Magpies.

“Each of their last four away games have featured under 2.5 goals.

“The same can be said for the Saints on home soil.

“Other than a 5-2 defeat to Tottenham, each of Southampton’s home matches have had under 2.5 goals.

“With only 2 points separating the sides in the Premier League table, and with similar habits in front of goal, I can see the most likely result here being a low-scoring draw.”

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