Newcastle v Norwich - Match Preview
Wednesday night will see current league leaders Norwich visit St James’ Park in what on paper should be a fantastic 90 minutes of football based on the fact that it is the clash of two of the best sides in the league thus far. Both sides have started the season well, being in and around the promotion and play-off places, and there is going to be no stopping either side from pushing on all season, aiming to go straight back up into England’s top flight division at the first time of asking. In the eyes of both sets of fans, this could be argued as the biggest game of the season, due to Newcastle’s squad depth and Norwich’s quality, as well as their Championship experience in recent seasons.
Newcastle currently find themselves sat in 5th at the moment - in a surprising turn of events, we appear to be better when playing away (I never thought I’d hear those words), managing to go on our travels and come home with 3 points, as proven in games against Bristol City and Derby, managing to take a lead and hold on it - something which we should have done at the weekend! However, a point away from home is still a pretty good result, albeit we should have come away with all 3. It’s the current home record that springs as a slight concern, with defeats to Huddersfield and more recently Wolves leaving question marks on why we don’t appear to play as well at home; could it be down to the pressure of the home crowd?
It mustn’t be ignored that there has been some much better performances at home, especially vs Brighton where we proved that we can take on the 'big boys' of the league and play with some real class.
Norwich’s promotion push couldn’t have started much better, finding themselves perched at the top of the tree after 9 games, with only 1 league defeat (hopefully come 2 soon enough!). They have showed off the quality of their team and used their Championship expertise well, bossing most games they have played, showing that they are genuine contenders for promotion this season. As well as that, similar to Newcastle, they do have a fair few quality players and some have been surprisingly good, with the likes of the young Jacob Murphy having a cracking start to the season.
It’s fair to say we will be gunning for the 3 points and also for revenge for the 3-2 defeat we suffered down Carrow Road last season, courtesy of that 90th minute winner from Olsson. To get the 3 points will be an extremely hard task though and the team will have to play better than in any game yet - but, we know it is more than possible! To keep Norwich’s strong attack quiet will most likely be the most important factor, as they are capable of scoring 1 and then running away with it, but they do appear to have a bit of a leaky defence, conceding 10 goals already this season.
The first goal in the game will be the key factor I believe and will most likely indicate which direction the game will go; let’s just pray it comes in our favour!
My prediction will be a slender 1-0 win for the home side, as I believe we are capable of keeping their attack quiet and as we have proven in just about every game this season that we are more than capable of scoring at least once every game - the only downside being a bit of a struggle killing games off, as we should have done away to Villa.
Predicted starting XI (4-4-1-1): Sels, Dummett, Clark, Lascelles, Yedlin, Gouffran, Hayden, Shelvey, Ritchie, Diame, Gayle.
Predicted result: 1-0 Home win.
