Newcastle – Fulham
Pick: Newcaslte (-0.5)
Odds: 1.80 @ Stan James
Stake: 6/10
Newcastle brought new players in the final hours of transfer window. Although they didn’t brought world class names, they strengthened their squad with Sibiersky who will be support striker, Rossi young talented player and Bernard left back who will be much better opinion than Babayaro, IMO.
Fulham the best signing this season, Routledgeprobably will start be on the bench. Coleman cannot count on Elrich and Elliot, but the return of Brown and Jensen in the midfield will be huge boost for the visitors.
Newcastle is well known as team who is very strong in front of home fans and team from which is expected top football. And Newcastle is playing much better at home than away. Newcastle is having strong team this season too. They brought some quality names like Duff and Martins, but they didn’t strengthen the defensive line, the line that was too weakest one in previous seasons. Only player who worth to be mentioned is Given who is the main reason that Newcastle is not conceding a lot of goals. All 4 in front of him, are playing on Championship level.
Fulham is team, just like Newcastle, home team too. They are playing much worse away than home. Last season they managed to win only one match away and that was in the last rounds. I think that Fuham is not stronger than last years and I expect them to fight against relegation this season too. They lost the key players from their midfield from previous seasons, Malbranque and Legwinski and see their midfield struggle in all matches especially against teams with very good midfield like Newcastle.
In my opinion, Newcastle will dominate in the midfield and will put pressure to Fuham’s goal and, to be honest, Fulham cannot resist on pressure because their defense is one of the weakest in the league. My only fear is their counter attack with Boa Morte and John upfront, but I believe that Newcastle is good enough to take win from this match.