The return of the Premier League is a welcome sight for many football fans, as we prepare for a hectic final few months of the season. Plus, as an added bonus, we’re going to get a rare slice of midweek EPL action – which doesn’t come around all too often. While that may end up giving some teams a bit less time to prepare for games things should still even themselves out pretty quickly, although one thing that’s worth noting is whether or not the attendances will be up to the usual standards given the weather forecast for next week.

But we aren’t here to talk about the weather, because we’re here to talk about the challenge that lies ahead of both Newcastle and Manchester City. These are two teams that are quite clearly trending in two opposite directions, and that’s not exactly a startling revelation. There’s a lot of history between these clubs and that’s not a secret either, but one thing that is a mystery is how the Magpies are going to perform against a team like City. Many have already begun the process of writing them off entirely, but the fans doing that should certainly know better.

Of course, Newcastle United also aren’t known as world beaters this season and perhaps rightly so, following inconsistency on the pitch as well as drama off of it. Many questions are surrounding the future of manager Rafa Benitez, but as we all know, the man in charge should never be more important than the team itself. Unfortunately for Newcastle the team aren’t really producing all that much in terms of quality, and while there’s still a long way to go this season, they definitely feel like a club that are contenders for the drop back down into the Championship.

City, on the other hand, have someone to chase. The reigning champions have had their slip up, and with Liverpool leading the way in the title race, it feels like they’re coming closer and closer to hunting them down every single week. Guardiola’s men still have a number of different competitions to compete in between now and the end of the season, but when you look at the strength of their squad, that becomes less and less of a concern. Still, if there was ever a time for a random upset result, a midweek came up on Tyneside would be it.

Newcastle’s last six game run began with a 2-0 loss to Manchester United, which was about as dull as you can picture it being. They then drew 1-1 with Blackburn in the FA Cup, before narrowly losing against Chelsea in a game that they actually played well in for small portions. They went on to beat Blackburn in their FA Cup replay, although it was still a fairly unconvincing performance. They ran riot over Cardiff in a nice 3-0 win before coming up against Watford yesterday in the fourth round of the FA Cup, where they fell to a 2-0 defeat.

Whereas City just can’t stop winning. Their last six game stretch began with an efficient 7-0 domination of Rotherham, before they managed to stick NINE goals past Burton Albion. Yes, you read that correctly. They proceeded to beat Wolves 3-0 before registering the same scoreline against Huddersfield, and then in the second leg against Burton, they cruised to a 1-0 win to make it 10-0 on aggregate. Their FA Cup tie this weekend took place against Burnley, and as you might have predicted by now, it was only ever going to go one way as Guardiola’s side made it six clean sheets out of six with a nice 5-0 win.

As we noted earlier on in the piece, these two teams have a lot of history – and it’s actually Newcastle who lead the way in the overall head to head standings 71-68 with 39 draws. Their first meeting took place back in 1893 when City were still called Ardwick, with their last meeting taking place back in September when City won 2-1. Guardiola’s men are actually unbeaten in their last six against the Magpies, with the old black & white’s last victory over the Champions of England coming back in October 2014 when they eased to a surprise 2-0 win in the League Cup.

Muto Yoshinori is still away on international duty so will be unavailable for this one, with a series of other absences forcing Benitez into a bit of a corner regarding his team selection. Karl Darlow, Mohamed Diame, Paul Dummett, Sung-Yong Ki and Jonjo Shelvey are all out of action, which means a few unlikely heroes will likely have to step up to the plate for the home side. That could either lead to a bit of a one sided game, which many fans are already anticipating, or it could mean we have a few new names being sung at St James’ Park for the next few weeks.

City only have a few absences by comparison, but they’re big ones. Benjamin Mendy is likely going to miss out on this one just when it seemed like he was on his way back to full fitness, whereas Vincent Kompany will also not be starting. Claudio Bravo is sidelined too, but when it comes down to it, you have to examine the strength of the squad as a whole when talking about Manchester City. They’re one of the best teams English football has seen for quite some time, and that really can’t be understated or ignored.

Newcastle vs Manchester City Betting Prediction

We’re expecting quite a subdued performance from City in the first half, to go alongside what will probably be a subdued atmosphere from a fed up Newcastle crowd. They know that they can take their time and they know that Newcastle are probably going to put 11 men behind the ball, and while you may not approve of that method, it’s not like they’re going to alter it because of that. They know what they have to do in order to secure a result, and they’re going to do their best to implement that from the first minute until the very last.

Alas, we still think City are going to end up running away with the game after scoring early on in the second half. They’ll stretch their legs and really start pushing back against Newcastle, likely scoring three in a short space of time. They’ll then sit back and invite the pressure which will probably lead to a consolation goal from the home side, eventually ending up in a 3-1 win for Manchester City. It won’t be the prettiest game that you’re ever going to watch, but it’ll definitely fall under the category of being efficient.

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