Newcastle United welcome Leicester City to St James’ Park in the first of this weekend’s Super Sunday double-header.
Newcastle can rise as high as 13th with a win, whilst Leicester can go third with at least one point although victory would move to within a point of the league summit.
Team News
Paul Dummett is set to return for Newcastle after a bout of illness kept the defender out of their recent matches.
Isaac Hayden (suspension), Ryan Fraser (groin) and Jamaal Lascelles (Coronavirus) won’t feature in this game, although the trio could be available for next Saturday’s trip to Arsenal in the FA Cup.
Allan Saint-Maximin however is ruled out of this match and is a major doubt for the FA Cup clash too, as he continues to struggle with the effects of Coronavirus.
Leicester expect to welcome James Maddison and Wesley Fofana back from knee injuries alongside Cengiz Under, who missed their last two matches with a hamstring injury.
Ricardo Pereira (groin) is ruled out but could return for their FA Cup trip to Stoke City next weekend.
Stat Attack
- Newcastle have won two of their last five league meetings against Leicester (W2, L3).
- Leicester are unbeaten in four of their last five league trips to Newcastle (W4, L1).
- Foxes’ James Maddison scored in both trips to St James’ Park last season across two competitions.
- Isaac Hayden is the first Newcastle player to be suspended this season for collecting five yellow cards.
- No Leicester player has had more shots on target this season than Jamie Vardy, who has put 21 of his 38 shots on goal in 15 league appearances.
Prediction
Newcastle United put in a surprisingly impressive performance against Liverpool on Wednesday yet poor decision making in the box cost them a win, although their defending when cleared balls left quite a bit to be desired with loose play and Karl Darlow digging them out of trouble.
Leicester meanwhile were unlucky to not win at Crystal Palace because if Kelechi Iheanacho had converted a penalty, the result could of been different yet they dug deep and benefitted from an error to snatch a point.
I am consequently expecting a scrappy encounter in which Leicester dominate but Newcastle defend deep on the counter, but I reckon Leicester will have enough to take a win if can take their chances well.
Prediction: Newcastle 1-2 Leicester
Result: Newcastle 1-2 Leicester
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