Newcastle v Leicester - Match Preview

Newcastle host high-flying Leicester City in their latest Premier League outing this weekend.

With Bournemouth and Aston Villa having tough away games at Swansea and Everton respectively tomorrow, and Sunderland having an equally tricky trip to Selhurst Park to face Alan Pardew’s Crystal Palace on Monday Night Football, Saturday’s game with the Foxes gives Newcastle the opportunity to put some daylight between themselves and the three teams currently occupying the relegation places beneath them.

For the rest of the country all the talk has been about Jamie Vardy, and his current nine game goal-scoring streak. He will equal ex-Manchester United forward Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record of scoring in ten consecutive games should he find the net on Tyneside. However, all the rumours suggest that he is not 100 per cent fit, and may even be a doubt to make the starting line-up.

Vardy really has been a major talking point this season, and even in our local media, all the talk has been about clubs, and in particular Newcastle, scouring the non-league scene to try and unearth the next hidden gem.

Vardy’s form has been a huge plus for England too, with his sensational rise seemingly set to earn him a well-deserved seat on the plane to France for the Euros next year.

His run of goals over the last nine games has been fantastic, even more so when you consider it has all been done for a team that – with all due respect to Leicester – is not one of the fashionable ‘top four’ clubs.

I have seen two of the three Newcastle players reach our record of scoring in consecutive games, which stands at seven. Len White held the record on his own until it was equalled by Paul Goddard in 1987, and latterly the Great Man himself, Alan Shearer bagged seven in a row in 1996. That was an amazing feat in itself, which shows just how big an achievement Vardy’s is.

However, Leicester’s success this season (and the latter half of the last to be honest) has not been down to Vardy alone. They showed grit and a magnificent team ethic to escape a seemingly inevitable relegation halfway through last season. This season, however, under the guidance of Claudio Ranieri, they have played some attractive football and fully deserve their lofty position in the table.

I expect Newcastle to continue with a 4-4-2 formation, with Ayoze Perez and Aleksander Mitrovic again leading the line. I like the partnership. The neat touches and runs from Perez, with the burly Mitrovic holding the ball up for him. What I would like to see now though, are some goals from the big Serbian. If he can start finding the back of the net on a regular basis, then this partnership may well flourish between now and May.

We were battered on the south coast at Bournemouth, yet still returned home with all three points. It was your stereotypical smash-and-grab performance – with a massive slice of great goalkeeping accompanied by a wedge of good fortune – but on such results, seasons can turn.

We have played well in a few games this season and not come away with the results that we probably deserved, so maybe the Bournemouth win will prove to be our turning point.

I still fear that we have a lack of flair in our team. We are still, in my opinion, missing a player that can jink passed a full back and turn a defender inside out, or someone capable of unlocking a defence with a moment of magic or genius.

We bought Florian Thauvin to do just that, but he is taking time to settle in, although I still hope that we will eventually see the best of the young Frenchman. The last this we need is for him to be cast aside the way that Remy Cabella and Hatem Ben Arfa were.

Another area of concern is the central midfield roles. Vurnon Anita put some stellar performances in earlier this season when accompanying Jack Colback in the middle, but he has seemed less assured with Cheick Tiote alongside him. Tiote’s form is my other big concern. He seems to be a shadow of the player he was a couple of years ago, and I would be tempted to sell him in January if a decent replacement can be brought in. Central midfield is such an important area of the pitch, especially in games like this weekend’s, against a team that has shown they will work for each other and put the graft in, and I worry that we may be overran in this particular battle.

But If we can compete in midfield, then I think we can get a win, and start looking up the table instead of down.

Prediction: Newcastle 3-1 Leicester