Saturday sees Newcastle United welcome Stoke City to St James Park, in a match where both sides will be looking to get back onto the winners list, after disappointing results last weekend. Outside90’s Anthony Margaretic previews the upcoming match.
Hosts Newcastle looked to be in control of their match against Sunderland before a dubious sending off to Fabricio Coloccini condemned the Magpies to defeat. Visitors Stoke were expected to have little trouble in seeing off newly promoted Watford at the Britannia Stadium, but a two-nil defeat halted a three-match winning run. The Potters most recent result will perhaps revitalise the squad, after they defeated Chelsea in penalties to advance to the last eight of the League Cup.
Key Battle
Georginio Wijnaldum vs Glenn Whelan
After a quiet outing in the North East Derby, instrumental Dutchman Wijnaldum will be eager to produce another stunning performance like the one he produced against Norwich a fortnight ago. Trying to stop ‘Gini’ from replicating a performance like that will be Stoke veteran Glenn Whelan. The defensive midfielder has been with the club since they made it to the Premier League in 2008, and while most of that promotion-winning squad have moved on, Whelan remains an integral part of this team and has played in all 10 of Stoke’s Premier League matches. Both have the power to decide which way this one goes.
Team news and expected lineups
Newcastle United
Skipper Fabricio Coloccini is free to play after his red card against Sunderland was over-turned. The only fresh injury concern is a big blow for the Magpies, with Jack Colback set to spend a few weeks on the sidelines with a knee injury. Tim Krul, Gabriel Obertan, Karl Darlow, Steven Taylor, Emmanuel Riviere and Sylvain Marveaux all remain out.
Stoke City
Phil Bardsley is suspended after picking up a red card in the cup win over Chelsea. He will miss the trip to St James Park along with Mark Muniesa and Geoff Cameron, who are injured while Bojan in serious doubt to be fit in time.
Head-to-head
Played: 89
Newcastle United wins: 43
Stoke City wins: 26
Drawn Matches: 20
Previous Meeting
The most recent meeting came in February this year where a late Peter Crouch equaliser cancelled out a Jack Colback strike to deny caretaker manager John Carver his first win at St James Park. It meant that it was the first time since the 2010/11 season where Newcastle failed to beat Stoke at home.
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Prediction
This might just be the hardest match of the week to forecast. Trying to predict the outcome of a Stoke City match is like trying to predict next week’s Lotto numbers. As for Newcastle, it will be interesting to see if the crushing derby defeat knocks the stuffing out of the squad, despite the fact that they did not play that bad. Seeing as though it is a battle of two highly unpredictable outfits, a draw seems to be a suitable result.
Newcastle United 1 Stoke City 1
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