Newcastle United welcome Leicester City to St James’ Park in a midtable Premier League clash.
Victory would see Newcastle improve to 14th due to Aston Villa not playing this weekend, whereas Leicester will stay ninth no matter the result.
Team News
Joe Willock could return for Newcastle after he missed their win over Wolves last weekend with a knee injury.
Ryan Fraser (hamstring) could also feature but Kieran Trippier (foot), Jamal Lewis (groin), Isaac Hayden (knee) and Callum Wilson (calf) remain absent.
Leicester could welcome Boubakary Soumare back into contention after he missed their last three matches with a groin injury.
Danny Ward, Ryan Bertrand, Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy all remain absent with knee injuries.
Stat Attack
- Newcastle have won just one of their last five meetings against Leicester (W1, L4).
- Leicester have won each of their last five league visits to St James’ Park (W5).
- James Maddison has scored once in each of Leicester’s last two visits to Newcastle (W2).
- Only two of Newcastle’s 21 league goals scored at home this season have been netted from the penalty spot.
- Leicester have kept just one clean sheet in nine away matches across all competitions in 2022 (W3, D1, L5).
Prediction
Despite sitting comfortably in midtable with safety all but assured, Newcastle fans certainly were in strong voice in last weekend’s win over Wolves which actually benefitted the players because they looked solid across the pitch with more confidence when on the attack.
I however felt that the Magpies were wasteful of their attacks with poor finishing which simply can’t be repeated here, with their win against Wolves proving lucky through a penalty kick which could be harder to force against Leicester.
Brendan Rogers’ Foxes meanwhile are coming into this match in decent form and will be on a high following Thursday’s win over PSV, yet they lacked much clinical attacking quality at times until changes were made so I expect a strong reaction here if can quickly control this game.
In fact, a trip to St James’ Park after winning a tricky away tie in Europe might be the ideal tonic for Leicester given their form on Tyneside, although I reckon that Newcastle will give them a tougher battle than usually is the case in this fixture.
Prediction: Newcastle 1-2 Leicester
Result: Newcastle 2-1 Leicester
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