This Saturday evening sees an entertaining looking fixture when Newcastle face Chelsea at St James Park. Kick-Off 17:30 BST.
Newcastle have made a very poor start to the season. Here they are coming off a 1-2 defeat at home to Watford and Steve McClaren’s side have now lost their last 3 Premier League games on the bounce. Currently Newcastle sit in 19th place on 2 points and they are yet to register a win this season. Newcastle’s recent home form reads a mediocre looking W3, D4, L8.
When playing the Premier Elite sides Newcastle’s record reads W2, D1, L7 and Newcastle can be backed at around 5.95.
The recent head-to-head record at the St James Park surprisingly favours the home side and reads Newcastle 3 wins, 1 Draw and Chelsea 1 win.
If you do fancy Newcastle to do well here then your best option is certainly to keep an element of the 1 goal loss on your side, and they can be backed +0.5/1.0 goal on the Asian handicap at around 2.07.
The draw can be backed at around 4.20 and this looks correctly priced.
Chelsea are coming into this match on the back of a controversial yet much needed 2-0 victory over North London rivals Arsenal. The Champions are now sitting in 15th place on 7 points, which is 8 behind current leaders Manchester City. Chelsea’s recent away record reads a reasonable looking W8, D2, L5. However it should be noted that 3 of these defeats have come in the last 4 away matches.
When facing teams of Newcastle’s grading, Chelsea’s away record reads a strong looking W7, D0, L3 and Chelsea can be backed at around 1.65. This price can be enhanced by backing them on the -0.5/1.0 goal handicap at around 1.85 .
Looking at the goal line then we are presented with some very mixed stats. When looking at both sides last 10 home and away matches to similar opposition, we see that 5 games have seen 4 or more goals scored, 6 games have seen 3 goals and 9 have seen 2 or less scored. When looking at the general stats 8 of Newcastle’s last 14 home, and 10 of Chelsea’s last 15 away have seen 3 or more goals. My ratings suggest that there is value in the over 2.5/3.0 line which can be backed at around 2.15.
This is a tough game to asses. For my trade I am going to the match line and although Newcastle have a good record in this fixture they are generally poor at home to the elite sides, where they have lost 10 of their last 14 home games. Also when facing teams placed in the bottom 6, Chelsea have won all 8 of their last 8 away games. Here I am basing my selection around how both sides perform against similar opposition and my recommended trade is Chelsea -0.5/1.0 goal at around 1.85.