Newcastle v Chelsea Tip

Who knows what exactly is going to happen at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon? Chelsea suffered yet more ignominy at the hands of Reading on Wednesday when they surrendered a 2-0 lead with three minutes to go. Meanwhile, the night before Newcastle were claiming a vital first away win of the season at Villa Park. So the Magpies will arrive on a high while the Blues must be crestfallen.

But even that doesn’t tell the whole story. Benitez’s side outclassed the Royals for 87 minutes at the Madejski Stadium and they will surely arrive with a point to prove. On the other hand, the Toon Army were grimly hanging on for dear life in the second half against Villa - a team widely derided for how bad they have been lately. Such are the fine margins in football.

The thing that we can predict with most confidence, it seems to me, is goals. Chelsea will have Demba Ba returning to the north east for the first time and the home faithful will naturally fear the worst. Furthermore, in Juan Mata and Frank Lampard, the visitors have two of the most prolific goalscoring midfielders in the top flight; both found the net in midweek.

But the nightmare for Benitez is that his team keep crumbling at the back. In recent weeks they have conceded two to Swansea, Southampton, Brentford and Reading. Not exactly the biggest names in the business.

Newcastle scored three against Arsenal and Man Utd in December so Alan Pardew knows they can the trouble the top sides offensively. WilliamHill offer best odds of 2/1 on there being over 3.5 goals in the match and that seems likely.