Another weekend in the Premier League kicks off on Friday night when Newcastle United take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’ Park as two sides who are on the fringes of the attention meet to open up the round of matches.
Newcastle have eased away from danger but a poor couple of weeks either side of the international break mean they are not completely safe yet while Wolves are hanging onto hopes of European football by their fingernails so both have something to motivate them here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Premier League channel with all the build-up to the contest beginning at 7pm. The kick off comes at 8pm.
Newcastle United
There is no doubt that things have turned around for Newcastle United since the turn of the year but they head into this match off the back of three successive defeats. That came after a run of six wins in seven to pull themselves away from danger. Whether those three defeats have been a circumstance of subconsciously thinking they are safe or not only they will know but teams below them have matches in hand so if Newcastle don’t find a win soon the pressure could soon come onto them.
One of the reasons why the Toon were able to pull away from danger was the improvement they had made defensively so it will come as a huge concern that they just shipped five at Tottenham and were all over the place in the process. They will certainly be looking to tighten up again here but they will also want to recover their scoring potential. Fabian Schar’s free kick last week was their first goal in three and even that should have been saved.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
After a run of three successive defeats to close out February and open up March, Wolverhampton Wanderers have now won three of their last four matches with the defeat to Leeds in that run coming when they were 2-0 up and seemingly cruising. The positive for Wolves is that they have suddenly come alive in front of goal. They have only scored 33 goals in their 31 matches this season but nine of them have come in their last four which is a significant improvement, especially as they have been without their talisman Raul Jimenez for the last match and a half.
If Wolves can keep that attacking output and maintain their defensive levels then they are likely to end the season in a positive vein. A win here would move them up to sixth place before everyone else plays over the weekend and they would only be two points off a Champions League spot with all the pressure in that race being on those around them. That makes this a big match but they have won five of their last seven away games which will give them plenty of confidence here.
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Team News
The home side will have Miguel Almiron available after he missed the defeat to Spurs with Covid. They will have to give a fitness test to Joe Willock but they could have Federico Fernandez available for the first time since December.
Wolverhampton Wanderers will be without Raul Jimenez who completes his suspension in this match. Ruben Neves and Ki-Jana Hoever are out for the season so Wolves could be unchanged from the win over Aston Villa last weekend.
Betting
Both teams have found the net in all seven matches between these two since they both returned to the Premier League and I’m not convinced that run is about to come to an end here. We saw last Sunday that while Newcastle have made strides defensively there is still an absolute mare in their defence and while they might look to tighten up at the back, there is always an emphasis from the stands that Newcastle play on the front foot at home.
Wolves have been lauded for their defensive record this season but the xG totals tell a vastly different story to the numbers in the league table and you get the impression that if Newcastle are going to get anything from this game they’ll have to go after Wolves at some point. I’ve thought all season that Wolves are better in attack than they’ve actually shown us with the talent they have in attacking areas and over the last three or four matches we’ve seen that come to fruition. I think evens is a good price to support both teams to score.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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