2019 is upon us ladies and gentlemen, and we sincerely hope that you had a magnificent New Year party or celebration of some kind last night. While there are bound to be some sore heads this morning you shouldn’t fear, as the world of Premier League football is always waiting right around the corner to make you feel a little bit better. There’s a full set of fixtures coming your way over the course of the next few days, and we can’t wait to see how it all unfolds as we prepare to go and do this journey all over again.

One game that particularly intrigues us will take place up North, as Newcastle United prepare to host Manchester United. It’s the kind of fixture where everyone is convinced that they know what’s going to happen, when in reality, they don’t. Nobody can predict an encounter of this nature, because it can just be so back and forth. The Magpies may be fighting off the threat of relegation but they certainly aren’t one of the favourites for the drop, whereas nobody ever quite knows what version of Manchester United they’re going to get on any given day. It’s truly one of life’s great mysteries.

Rafa Benitez clearly has his own share of issues at Newcastle United, with Mike Ashley likely being the biggest. Even with that being the case, though, he still seems to be dragging this team closer and closer towards a respectable finish, even if the fanbase is fairly divided right now. Sure, the football can be uninspiring at times, but you have to weigh up what it is you want to prioritise. If they want to stay in the Premier League, then sometimes they’re going to have to grind out results that aren’t going to come particularly easily.

For Manchester United, it’s clear to see that good old Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had quite the effect on the club. The Norwegian has been able to bring back that feel good vibe to Old Trafford, and nobody can deny that. He was once a legendary striker and now he’s so much more than that, and all it took was a few good results. United now harbour pretty realistic ambitions of finishing in the top five, and beyond that, it’s not all that ridiculous to consider the possibility of pushing Chelsea and Arsenal all the way in the race for the top four.

Newcastle’s last six games have been the definition of inconsistent, but that isn’t exactly going to be ‘news’ to a lot of you. They drew 1-1 with Everton before losing a heartbreaker against Wolverhampton Wanderers, although their narrow 1-0 triumph over Huddersfield Town certainly helped to calm some of the critics. A 0-0 draw against Fulham was pretty uninspiring, whereas their 4-0 loss against Liverpool almost felt inevitable. They edged out a point against Watford, but even with a result like that against a team like the Hornets, there’s still a long way to go for them before they can consider themselves ‘safe’.

United’s last six game stretch began with a 4-1 demolition of Fulham, leading many to believe that they stood a realistic chance of surviving under Mourinho. That then went out of the window with back to back losses against Valencia and Liverpool, with the latter serving as the final nail in the coffin. Since Ole came in, though, they’ve been a different kind of animal, with 5-1, 3-1 and 4-1 wins over Cardiff, Huddersfield and Bournemouth respectively. From a goalscoring perspective alone it feels like they’ve got that edge back which they’ve been sorely missing.

With their first meeting dating all the way back to 1895, it’s hardly surprising to learn that these two sides have faced off quite a few times. Manchester United lead the overall head to head standings 85-42 with 39 draws in between, and in their last meeting back in early October, they came from 2-0 down to defeat Newcastle 3-2 in the dying minutes of the game. It was the definition of a last gasp winner, and while both teams are very similar in terms of who is starting regularly, Newcastle will be hungry for revenge and they’re always capable of big things in front of their own crowd.

Federico Fernandez is considered to be one of the biggest doubts for Newcastle in this game, after he came off against Watford courtesy of a hip problem. Ciaran Clark also has an issue which will likely keep him out of a fourth straight game, although in more positive news, Jonjo Shelvey is expected to return to the starting line-up after appearing as a substitute against the Hornets. Florian Lejeune is also on the verge of return, and while their squad still isn’t the strongest, having so many options can only be a good thing for Benitez at this busy stage of the campaign.

Marcus Rashford is suffering from a groin problem stemming from the win against Bournemouth, as the forward prepares to sit out for this one. Eric Bailly’s red card ensures that he’ll be suspended against the Magpies, with one of the big stories being the return of Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean has really struggled to make an impact since arriving at Manchester United and there’s a lot of expectation still on his shoulders, and it certainly feels like he could thrive in this new attacking setup. Scott McTominay, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling will unfortunately miss out for the visitors.

Newcastle vs Manchester United Betting Prediction

The one thing that we think Newcastle need to try and do is bully United off the ball. Under Ole they seem to thrive on getting the early goal and sitting back on it, and if Newcastle can form a united (pun intended) front, then they could do some big things in this game. We think they’re going to keep the visitors out for the better part of an hour, only for United to score through a fortunate goal to take the lead. It won’t be convincing, but it’ll be the kind of goal that you get when you’re in need of a slice of luck.

Then, in the final 10 minutes of the game, Manchester United will do what Manchester United do: finish the game in style. They’ll score a really nice team goal that reminds everyone what they’re capable of, and it’ll leave everyone forgetting about how well Newcastle have played throughout the previous 90 minutes which is a shame. We’d be interested to see what kind of scrutiny is thrown in the direction of Benitez if they did lose in a manner like this, because actually scoring has been one of their big issues.

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