Date: Saturday, October 19 Venue: St James' Park Kick-Off: 12:45 BST Can Newcastle avoid another crushing defeat against second placed Liverpool?
Team News
Newcastle will be without their captain Fabricio Coloccini for Saturday's visit of Liverpool in the Premier League. The defender is out with a muscle injury, while winger Jonas Gutierrez will also be missing due to personal reasons. However, French contingent Loic Remy, Moussa Sissoko, Mathieu Debuchy and Yohan Cabaye are all in contention to play having returned from international duty unscathed. Liverpool fullback Glen Johnson has returned to training after sitting out England's recent World Cup qualifiers with an ankle injury and could feature. Aly Cissokho should also be available, but this match will come too soon for recovering duo Joe Allen and Philippe Coutinho. (BBC)
Key Stats
Liverpool have won seven of the last 10 meetings with Newcastle (W7, D1, L2). The last time these sides met, the Reds thrashed the Magpies 6-0 at St James' Park. That defeat back in April was Newcastle's biggest home defeat since 1925. The Magpies' last 12 league goals have been scored by French players. Liverpool are unbeaten in their last seven away league matches (W5, D2), scoring 17 times and conceding just five times.
Newcastle will be looking for a better performance against their next two Premier League opponents than that they enjoyed over them last season. After Saturday's visit of Liverpool comes the Tyne and Wear derby with Sunderland, two sides who enjoyed thumping wins over the Magpies last time out. In April, Alan Pardew's side lost 3-0 to the latter then 6-0 to the former - their heaviest home defeat since 1925. Then, that string of results dragged the North East side into a relegation dogfight, finishing just two places above the drop zone by the end of the season. And Newcastle know a repeat result here on Saturday and again against Sunderland will once more leave them in the mire. Against Liverpool., they come up against the division's form team. Just one defeat in their opening seven games have left the Reds sitting second in the table behind Arsenal and well-placed to push on in the New Year. They also have last season's top scorer Luis Suarez back in the side, and with Daniel Sturridge banging in the goals, these two will be looking to torture Newcastle's defence again. Then there's Steven Gerrard to factor into the equation. The man of the hour for England in their crunch World Cup qualifier against Poland on Tuesday, the midfielder is looking for his 100th Premier League goal this weekend. Seven of the 99 he's got so far have come against Newcastle, meaning there's pretty good odds of it coming here. Prediction: 0-2
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
