Newcastle United vs Manchester United Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2012-01-04 - Newcastle United vs Manchester United

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Newcastle United v Manchester United
Football: English Premier League
Wednesday 4 January 2012 - Kick Off 8pm
This game is live on TV

Newcastle United

Newcastle United had a fantastic start to the Premier League season, but they were not expected to remain as challengers for a top 4 finish and are now steadily falling back to the rest of the pack. They do have a chance to close the gap on the teams above them if they can further dent Manchester United's title challenge, although they are wary of facing a backlash in this game.

The team are still 7th in the Premier League table, but it is telling about their lack of form that they now only hold a 6 point advantage over local rivals Sunderland, a team that has struggled for much of the season. Newcastle have a 4-3-2 record this season at home, scoring 12 goals and conceding 11.

The poor form I spoke out above shows the team have won just 1 of their last 8 Premier League games, and they have only picked up 5 points from a possible 24. They have begun to struggle at home where they have failed to win their last 3 League games, losing 2 of those. Earlier this season, they based their success on solid defensive performances, but they come into this one having conceded at least 3 goals in 5 of their last 8 games, including 2 out of 3 at home.

Gabriel Obertan should be fit to face his old club after suffering a toe injury, but both Danny Guthrie and Peter Lovenkrands are still unable to feature.

Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson described the weekend 2-3 loss to Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford as a 'disaster', although Manchester City's loss to Sunderland the next day would have lessened his feelings. There was also talk of a falling out with Wayne Rooney, but the club has not addressed those issues as they look to bounce back to form.

Manchester United lost ground on Manchester City on Tuesday night and now trail their local rivals by 3 points and 8 goals. It is just one season since United were really struggling to perform away from Old Trafford, but this year they have a 7-2-0 record, scoring 19 goals and conceding 3. United have won the most away games in the League so far this season, while they also have the best defensive record.

United had won 8 and drawn 1 of their last 9 Premier League games before the surprising 2-3 home loss to Blackburn Rovers. The Red Devils have won their last 5 away games in the Premier League and they have kept clean sheets in each of those.

Wayne Rooney should be back in the starting XI for this game having missed the weekend game with Blackburn, while Rio Ferdinand and Chris Smalling could both return to bolster a struggling defence. Darren Gibson is another who is available after being left out on Saturday, while Anderson should still be on the bench. Ryan Giggs is going to need a late fitness test.

Head to Head

Manchester United have won 6 of their last 8 away games in the Premier League at Newcastle United, the other two games ending in draws including a 0-0 here last season.

The teams drew 1-1 at Old Trafford earlier this season when Newcastle were recipients of a very controversial penalty.

Before last season, United had scored at least 2 goals in their last 8 trips to this part of the North-East.

Prediction

This will not be an easy game for Manchester United to get back to winning ways, especially in front of the passionate Newcastle United fans who will smell blood after United were surprised by Blackburn Rovers last time out.

However, United have made a habit of bouncing back from poor results in their time under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson and I do expect to see a big reaction from Saturday's game, while the expected returns of Ferdinand, Smalling, Rooney and Giggs makes them a much more solid prospect.

Newcastle themselves have really hit the buffers of late and they are conceding far too many goals at the moment. The loss of Steven Taylor has shaken their beliefs and I think they will find it hard to contain United here.

I expect the Magpies to cause problems, but eventually United's strength should be too much and I will back them on the Asian Handicap to win this game.

The Statistics :

NEWCASTLE LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-12-21	L	2-3	H v WBA
	2011-12-17	D	0-0	H v Swansea
	2011-12-03	L	0-3	H v Chelsea
	2011-11-05	W	2-1	H v Everton
	2011-10-22	W	1-0	H v Wigan
	2011-10-16	D	2-2	H v Tottenham

MAN_UTD LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-12-21	W	0-5	A v Fulham
	2011-12-18	W	0-2	A v QPR
	2011-12-03	W	0-1	A v Aston_Villa
	2011-11-19	W	0-1	A v Swansea
	2011-10-29	W	0-1	A v Everton
	2011-10-15	D	1-1	A v Liverpool

HEAD TO HEAD NEWCASTLE v MAN_UTD
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2011-04-19	Newcastle	0-0	Man_Utd
2009-03-04	Newcastle	1-2	Man_Utd
2008-02-23	Newcastle	1-5	Man_Utd
2007-01-01	Newcastle	2-2	Man_Utd
2005-08-28	Newcastle	0-2	Man_Utd
2004-11-14	Newcastle	1-3	Man_Utd