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Newcastle United need to ‘mind the gap’ on Sunday after Saturday’s results

3 years ago
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Interesting to see how the Premier League is looking for Newcastle United after the latest set of matches on Saturday.

For Newcastle fans, it could have been a lot worse.

Thursday night had already seen the luck go Steve Bruce’s way, when Fulham and West Brom were very unfortunate to lose 1-0 to Tottenham and Everton respectively.

On Saturday night, Newcastle United were thankful for late drama in the final match of the day.

Brighton had taken a tenth minute lead and were looking comfortable against Leicester, only for goals on 62 and 87 minutes for the visitors, to once again leave Brighton wondering how they’d manage to lose in a game where they had played so well.

That defeat keeps Brighton on the same number of points as Newcastle United and gives the Magpies some much needed extra insurance against the possibility of Fulham winning today.

Earlier results hadn’t really gone Newcastle’s way in the relegation battle, with Burnley 1 Arsenal 1 and Sheffield United 0 Southampton 2.

Worth looking at the updated Premier League table, how it looks now on Sunday morning:

As you can see, Newcastle United stay fourth from bottom after Saturday’s matches but Fulham only three points behind still.

A defeat for Newcastle at West Brom AND a win for Fulham at Liverpool, would take Steve Bruce and his players into the bottom three, though at least with the security of knowing that it was now looking a three way fight for the last relegation spot, as Newcastle, Fulham and Brighton would all be on 26 points.

Yesterday’s Southampton win has surely ensured they are going to be safe, whilst Burnley continue to do it their way and I think will definitely stay up, their last seven PL results have been five draws, one win and one defeat. Not exactly exhilarating but enough to mean they will stay up.

You may laugh at mention of Fulham winning at Anfield BUT only if you are clueless about what has been happening with Liverpool recently.

Their last five PL matches at Anfield have finished:

Liverpool 0 Burnley 1

Liverpool 0 Brighton 1

Liverpool 1 Man City 4

Liverpool 0 Everton 2

Liverpool 0 Chelsea 1

Five defeats including to Brighton and Burnley, only one goal scored by the scousers and nine conceded. If Fulham can find a goal then I think they could well win, as they have an excellent defence now and have conceded only twice in the last six PL matches.

These are the updated Premier League relegation odds from BetVictor on Sunday morning after those Saturday results:

1/66 Sheffield United

1/33 West Brom

4/5 Fulham

6/4 Newcastle United

6/1 Brighton

7/1 Burnley

40/1 Crystal Palace

100/1 Southampton

Steve Bruce was yet again bleating on with a fantasy ahead of this weekend that Newcastle are only one of six or seven clubs worriedly looking over their shoulders at the bottom three, fair to say that I doubt the likes of Wolves and Leeds are fearing relegation when they are on 35 points, nor indeed Southampton and Palace in reality.

The bookies still see Brighton (6/1) as a team that aren’t going to go down, even though they are level on points with Newcastle (6/4) and have played a game more.

Steve Bruce and his players could of course sweep away a lot of worries with a convincing win today…but with only two wins in seventeen games and the embarrassing antics and words from Bruce this past week, the club looks (predictably) an absolute shambles behind the scenes.

Sam Allardyce has only lost twice against Newcastle in twelve games since leaving in January 2008 and will be loving it today if he can get another win against the Newcastle fans who despise him. It would also give West Brom renewed faint hope as they would be only six points adrift of safety.

The bookies make West Brom (6/4) favourites to win today, with Newcastle 9/4 outsiders.

If that is paired with a Fulham win at Anfield, Newcastle will go bottom three AND undoubtedly become favourites to go down with Sheffield United and West Brom.

These are all the matches for the bottom six before the international fortnight later this month:

Burnley – Everton (A)

Brighton – Southampton (A), Newcastle (H)

Newcastle United – West Brom (A), Villa (H), Brighton (A)

Fulham – Liverpool (A), Man City (H), Leeds (A)

West Brom – Newcastle (H), Crystal Palace (A)

Sheff Utd – Leicester (A)

If Newcastle don’t get a win today and things go wrong at Anfield, that Newcastle match at Brighton looks huge on Saturday 20 March.

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