St. James’ Park awaits one big matchup on Sunday night as Newcastle hosts Liverpool in the central event of the day. The two title contenders will measure their strength and see where they stand at the early stage of the season. Liverpool comes off a win against Bournemouth at home, while Newcastle traveled to Manchester to face the champions, City, and lost that encounter. Eddie Howe’s boys had a tremendous start against Villa which was a bit overshadowed by a tight loss at the Etihad. As for the Reds, they are trying to adjust all the lines, and still experience certain glitches.
Preview
Newcastle (+120) was perfect against Aston Villa, beating the Villains 5-1 in the first round at St. James’ Park. It was a rhapsody for Eddie Howe’s boys and the fans, but it didn’t last for too long. The Magpies’ fans hoped to make a surprise against City, who didn’t have De Bruyne, yet they came up short, not performing as expected.
Even the weakened City was too much trouble for the team from north, who still needs experience and routine to compete with the best. The quality is there, no need to explain that.
The way Newcastle played over the summer, we think that Howe made certain modifications and that this crew looks more like his Bournemouth from the time when the Cherries played one of the most appealing football in the Premiership, trying to attack and dictate the tempo.
Bournemouth was Liverpool‘s (+210) latest victim, with the Reds beating Howe’s former club 3-1 on Sunday afternoon. The Reds allowed a goal in the opening minute, but it was canceled. Not too long following that, we saw them conceding one more hit, which was regular this time.
However, Klopp’s boys immediately bounced back and became much more aggressive, which led to them flipping the result in no time and leaving for the break with a 2-1 lead.
The defense is still problematic, and we can’t say they improved compared to the previous campaign. Van Dijk and the boys can’t find the form from the year when they won the championship, and that’ll be a massive problem for the Reds in the future. The attack, on the other hand, is absolutely thrilling.
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Javier Manquillo, Emil Krafth, and Joseph Willock are all out for the hosts.
MacAllister received a red card against the Cherries, and he will be suspended. Thiago Alcantara is injured and will be out until September.
Head to Head
Liverpool was one of the few teams that managed to defeat Newcastle twice last year. The first game at Anfield ended 2-1 for the Reds, while the second one saw their 0-2 victory.
Predictions
As said, Newcastle plays much more offensive-minded football than before, and they scored plenty of goals throughout the preseason period. Liverpool’s efficiency was extraordinary, yet their defense was terrible, but overall their games were almost always high-scoring affairs. Our pick here will be for both teams to score, with the odds on that currently at -205. If you want, you can go with both teams to score and over 2.5 goals, -160.
Pick: Both teams to score -205
Here are more previews for this weekend’s games:
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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