Newcastle United vs Stoke

a sense an air of optimism breaking out..... could bode well...

 

FROM NUFC.COM

Newcastle return to first team action on Saturday when Tony Pulis brings his Potters to a sold-out St. James' Park for a 3pm kick-off.

The Magpies go in search of their sixth successive league victory - something they've achieved just three times since joining the Premier League in August 1993.

Half a dozen wins during February and March 1994 ended with a 1-1 draw at Leeds on April Fools Day, while a similar run at the start of the following season was halted by a 1-1 home draw against Liverpool in September 1994.

United have racked up seven straight league wins in the Premier League just once, beginning with a 2-1 victory at roker park in September 1996 and culminating in the equally memorable 5-0 beating of Manchester United at Gallowgate the following month. The run then ended at Filbert Street when Leicester City won 2-0.

The Potters have taken an allocation of 1,664 places but all tickets in home areas are now sold out.

Current Premier League table:




Pos Team Played GD Pts
1 Manchester United 34 54 82
2 Manchester City 34 58 77
3 Arsenal 34 24 64
4 Spurs 33 19 59
5 Newcastle 33 8 59
6 Chelsea 33 18 57
7 Everton 33 4 47
8 Liverpool 33 4 46



The top four finishers in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League, unless Chelsea manage to win it this season, in which case they would take a place and the team finishing fourth would qualify the Europa League, with an extra place granted.

If Chelsea don't win the Champions League, three clubs will enter the Europa League: the League Cup Winners, the FA Cup winners and the fifth placed finishers.

However, with Liverpool already assured of qualification after winning the Carling Cup and now through to an FA Cup Final against a Chelsea side assured of European qualification, a place opens up for the sixth place team.

There's still every incentive for United to try and gain as many of the fifteen remaining points available to them this season though: the possibility of Champions League qualification remains, while the single Europa League Group stage place available goes to the club with the highest finishing position of all the Europa League qualifiers.

* A few of you have suggested a scenario where we finish sixth behind Everton with Chelsea seventh and Liverpool below Chelsea. In that case we'd miss out - it's highly unlikely but still possible, so finishing sixth doesn't guarantee a Europa League spot.


Paddy Power match betting is online here

Selected PP Match odds:
Newcastle to win both halves @ 7/2
Score draw @ 7/2

(NB: quoted odds were accurate at the time of writing, but subject to fluctuation - click on the link above to display current live odds). both halves @ 7/2
Score draw @ 7/2

(NB: quoted odds were accurate at the time of writing, but subject to fluctuation - click on the link above to display current live odds).

Squad: The Chronicle reports that Tim Krul has picked up a slight back injury that caused him to miss training as a precaution on Thursday - presumably it wasn't as a result of the squad's midweek basketball match....

Peter Lovenkrands, Steven Taylor and Haris Vuckic all remain on the treatment table and aren't anticipated to make a return this season.

Danny Guthrie, James Perch, Cheick Tiote and Gabriel Obertan are expected to be available, while Leon Best, Sylvain Marveaux and Steve Harper are all in training.

A goal for Papiss Cisse would mean that he'd scored in six successive PL games - the first player to achieve that feat this season (Wayne Rooney, Rafael Van der Vaart and Robin Persie all got to five before drawing a blank).