Paul Merson has now shared what he thinks the score will be when Newcastle United travel to Chelsea on Monday night.
Both Newcastle and Chelsea are still battling for a European position this season with the Geordies recording a big win against Wolves at the weekend while Chelsea claimed a late point at Brentford.
Paul Merson believed the Blues could end the season on a high under Mauricio Pochettino and has predicted on Sportskeeda that they will seal a huge result against Newcastle on Monday.
Merson thinks Chelsea could beat Newcastle
Newcastle will be looking for revenge next week from their Carabao Cup quarter final in December which they lost on penalties at Stamford Bridge after Kieran Trippier and Matt Ritchie’s missed spot kicks.
It was in fact the England international who had made the mistake in injury time that resulted in Chelsea’s equalising goal taking the games to penalties, but he won’t have a part to play in this upcoming fixture.
Eddie Howe will also want to push on from Saturday’s win against Wolves and secure another big three points as they try to overtake West Ham and Man United who currently occupy the European positions.
Champions League does now seem out of their reach given the 15-point gap between them and Aston villa in fourth, but a top six or top seven finish would still be viewed as progress by Newcastle’s owners.
On the game, Merson said: “Chelsea are four points behind Newcastle with a game in hand, so this is an absolutely massive game for them. If they can win this and go on a bit of a run, it may not be all doom and gloom for Mauricio Pochettino, whose position at the club is likely to be re-evaluated at the end of the season.
“The Blues are slowly getting better, but they tend to have phases in games. They need to be more consistent over the course of the 90 minutes to start winning more games. Chelsea have some nice games coming up and could end the season well, so I’m going for a 2-1 home win.”
Prediction: Chelsea 2-1 Newcastle
Newcastle need another huge defensive performance
Against Wolves, Newcastle recorded their first Premier League clean sheet since mid December when they beat 10-man Fulham, and they’ll need to be at their best again to defeat Chelsea.
Things looked a little out of sorts at the back for Newcastle as of late and there was a huge concern with the likes of Sven Botman who hasn’t been the same player since he returned from his injury.
However, the Dutch defender looked more like his usual self that we saw last season on Saturday, and he’ll need to be on top form when he faces the likes of Cole Palmer at Stamford Bridge.
Howe will be grateful for having a full eight days off in between the two games for his side to recover, especially with Joe Willock and Alexander Isak only just returning to the team.
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