Newcastle United vs Southampton

Newly-promoted Southampton travel to St James’ Park to take on European hopefuls Newcastle United on the opening Premier League weekend.

Manchester United’s FA Cup triumph last season condemned Newcastle United to a year without European football, rendering their seventh-place finish in the Premier League meaningless. Grappling with the EPL’s infamous PSR rules, Eddie Howe’s men have only made one high-profile summer signing, landing goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos to cover for Nick Pope’s injury. But that won’t deter the Magpies from pursuing a third consecutive winning start to a new Premier League campaign, especially as they kick things off at St James’ Park. Too hot to handle on their iconic home venue, Newcastle haven’t lost a home league match in their last eight outings on Tyneside (W4, D4), two of which saw them score 4+ goals against newly-promoted opponents, promising a spectacle against Southampton this weekend.

On the other hand, Southampton’s only task this season is to uphold their top-flight status, a feat none of the three promoted clubs from last season managed to achieve. The Saints got the better of Leeds United in the promotion playoff at Wembley in late May to secure a swift return to the Premier League, with manager Russell Martin preparing for his touchline debut in top-flight football. St James’ Park is the last venue he would want to visit on this occasion, considering Southampton’s dreadful eight-game winless streak on this ground (D2, L6). But perhaps the arrivals of Charlie Taylor and Adam Lallana could help the visitors upset the apple cart. It would see Southampton buck a negative trend that has seen five of the last six Championship playoff winners lose their curtain-raising Premier League game by multi-goal margins.