Newcastle United have picked up seven points from the last possible nine and if they make it eight from a possible 12, Michael Owen says it ‘wouldn’t be the worst result in the world’ for Rafa Benitez’ team.
The rot has been stopped with a battling draw at Southampton, which was then followed by wins over top seven clubs Watford and Bournemouth at St James Park.
As Newcastle have now risen to 14th in the table, Michael Owen thinks he has been proved right: “I always believed United were in a false position the table in the early weeks of the season.”
Newcastle’s travelling supporters have got the dreaded Monday night spot this weekend and so will see how the other 18 clubs ave got on before they face Burnley.
Burnley only managed 16 goals at home last season but still picked up 26 points at Turf Moor, only 36 goals in total including away matches as they ended up seventh. Their success built on a solid defence that conceded only 39 goals, 17 at home and 22 away, bizarrely ending up with a negative (-3) goal difference despite having only six clubs above them.
This season they are still struggling for goals with 12 (six home and six away) goals scored but their defence is now letting them down with 25 conceded, 10 in five games at home and 15 in seven matches away.
Burnley have only won one of their eight home Premier League match and that was a bit of a freak result as they had five shots on target and beat Bournemouth 4-0.
Talking of freak results/stats, Michael Owen points out that ‘Newcastle United have played their last 12 games on a Monday night away from home (L11 W1)’, which is obviously a shocking record.
He gets it slightly wrong because the one win in that 12 game sequence was actually on a Monday afternoon, not night. Newcastle winning 1-0 a Stoke with a Perez goal on New Year’s Day, with the only Monday game since then being a 1-0 NUFC defeat away to Everton.
It is a shocking record playing in this TV slot and last season Newcastle lost 1-0 at Burnley in a shocking match where one goal was always likely to decide it.
Michael Owen thinks it will be more of the same and his betting tip is that there will be no more than one goal in the game.
The last two matches (Watford and Bournemouth) have shown Newcastle can hold onto a lead if getting the first goal, whilst goalless away draws at Southampton, Cardiff and Palace show additional proof of this team’s resilience.
If indeed Newcastle can get that crucial opening goal, another win is there for the taking. What do you think?