Paul Merson has now predicted what he think the score will be when Newcastle United take on Wolverhampton Wanderers this weekend.
Newcastle are coming off the back of a penalty win against Blackburn in the FA Cup but a defeat to Arsenal will still be weighing on their minds while Wolves’ four wins in their last five will give them confidence.
In his predictions for Sportskeeda, the former Arsenal man is predicting there to be a lot of goals in this game but for Newcastle to just about edge it with their quality.
Battle for Europe between Wolves and Newcastle
At the beginning of the season nobody could have predicted that Newcastle and Wolves would be two of the teams battling it out for one of the European spots outside of the Champions League places.
With Newcastle’s successes in finishing fourth last year while Wolves looked to be in turmoil as their manager walked out ahead of the new season, they looked like two teams heading in different directions.
However, Saturday’s visitor’s to St James’ Park have now gone above the Magpies after their big win against Brighton last weekend after Arsenal’s demolition of Newcastle in North London.
This weekend marks a significant moment in the season for Eddie Howe who can get his European goal back on track or lose even more ground in the race and head towards a potentially bottom half finish in the Premier League.
On the game, Merson said: “Newcastle went to Arsenal and got absolutely battered as I predicted. They had a great result in the FA Cup in midweek but are set to play against Man City in the quarterfinal, so that’s the end of their cup run, you could say.
“Wolves, on the other hand, are a very underrated football team and have been a good team to watch under Gary O’Neil. I think there will be goals in this one but I think Newcastle will just nick it at home. I’m only saying that because while Wolves are a good team, they are at their best when they aren’t expected to win, which isn’t necessarily the case here.
“The Magpies got into the top four last season and that came as a huge surprise. In terms of their performances in the current campaign, I’m not really shocked with their current predicament as they collectively overachieved last season, so everyone knew it would be impossible for them to keep that up. We shouldn’t judge them based on that as we all knew that wasn’t going to happen again!”
Prediction: Newcastle United 3-2 Wolves
Newcastle can’t afford another underwhelming defensive display
Newcastle’s defence has really let them down of late having conceded 12 goals in their last four league games, with eight of those coming against Luton, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.
For a team with ambitions as high as Newcastle they have to hope that this is just a blip in form and that they will return to their usual top performances this weekend.
However, we’ve not seen many signs that this may be the case as even against Championship opposition on Tuesday night they looked sluggish and out of ideas as they very easily could have lost the tie.
One positive for Newcastle is that Wolves will be without top scorer Hwang Hee-Chan on Saturday, one of their scorers in their previous meeting which ended 2-2 at the Molineux and could have been another defeat for the Geordies.
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