Newcastle United vs Burnley 27/02/19

27 February 2019

The bottom-half-of-the-table clash between Newcastle United and Burnley sees the hosts chasing their fourth successive PL victory at the St. James’ Park.

Thanks to a promising haul of ten points in their last five Premier League outings (W3, D1, L1), Newcastle can rest easy for a while, knowing they sit four points clear of 18th-placed Southampton. The Magpies usually refuse to go all out, preferring to focus on not conceding a goal, which has seen seven of their previous 11 PL meetings producing under 2.5 goals. Although Rafa Benitez doesn’t really apply an offensive-minded football, he must be thrilled to see his players scoring 2+ match goals in three consecutive PL home games after bagging just one goal in four league meetings at the St. James’ Park. Meanwhile, although they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet in seven of their last nine PL events, the Magpies have conceded over 1.5 goals per match on just two occasions in that period.

The visitors are enjoying by far the best spell this season having racked up an eight-game unbeaten PL run (W5, D3) as they now sit six points clear of the relegation territory. The Clarets seem to have managed to overcome a severe crisis that has seen them lose five of six PL road clashes (D1, L5) as they now go unbeaten in their last four league games away from home (W2, D2). However, Sean Dyche is still unable to solve his team’s immense defensive problems that put them on just two clean sheets in their previous 15 road meetings across all competitions. The one thing Dyche can be happy about is that Burnley’s attacking output away from home has increased recently, with the Clarets bagging 2+ match goals on three of their last four PL road trips.