Newcastle United vs Everton 28/12/19

28 December 2019

Unbeaten in their last four Premier League (PL) games (W2, D2), Everton head to St. James Park to take on an unpredictable Newcastle United side.

The home side will be desperate to bounce back following a disastrous 4-1 away defeat to Manchester United a couple of days ago that was their second failure in their last five top-flight outings (W3, L2). Poorly organized in the final third, the Magpies have now scored one goal or less in each of their previous three PL matches. However, that’s a sharp contrast to Newcastle’s prolific form at St. James Park, where they’ve scored 2+ match goals in three of their last four league fixtures. Steve Bruce’s players rarely drop points on home turf. They have not suffered a single loss in their last eight PL home games (W4, D4), restricting their opponents to a maximum of one goal per match in all but one of those fixtures.

After registering a narrow 1-0 home triumph over Burnley at his managerial debut at Everton, Carlo Ancelotti will be looking to replicate the similar success at Newcastle where the Toffees won twice in their previous three top-flight trips (W2, L1). But, the Merseyside outfit will have to defy a dismal PL away record to pick up three points here, as they’ve pulled off only one victory in nine league road trips so far this season, suffering six defeats in the process (W1, D2, L6). Frustratingly for the traveling side, five of those failures have seen Everton concede two or more goals, with four coming via a multiple-goal margin. The one consolation for Ancelotti is that his men have found the net in six of their last seven PL away games, scoring over 1.5 match goals on three of those occasions.