Can Arne Slot’s side be stopped in the Premier League? We look ahead to Wednesday’s clash with our Newcastle United vs Liverpool prediction and preview.
Newcastle vs Liverpool: The Key Insights
- Liverpool are backed as the favourites by the Opta supercomputer, winning 50.2% of pre-match simulations.
- Newcastle United are winless in 15 Premier League games against Liverpool and have lost the last six in a row.
- Mohamed Salah has been involved in 14 top-flight goals against Newcastle.
The Premier League title race is not decided in December, but Liverpool are firmly in control of their own destiny heading into Wednesday’s trip to Newcastle United.
Cody Gakpo’s early opener and Mohamed Salah’s second-half penalty saw Arne Slot’s side to an impressive 2-0 victory over out-of-form Manchester City on Sunday at Anfield.
That win moved leaders Liverpool 11 points clear of the defending champions, and nine ahead of chasers Arsenal and Chelsea.
Though a trip to St. James’ Park may prove tough, Liverpool have won 16 of their last 18 midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) games in the competition (D1 L1). However, their last such match ended in a 2-0 defeat away to Everton in April.
Slot will once again be reliant on the in-form Salah, who has been involved in 14 Premier League goals against Newcastle (eight goals, six assists) across his last 13 outings against them.
The visitors could be further boosted by Federico Chiesa returning to their matchday squad after Slot confirmed the Italian is back in team training, though Liverpool will continue to be without goalkeeper Alisson, as well as defensive trio Kostas Tsimikas, Ibrahima Konaté and Conor Bradley. The game is also likely to come too soon for Diogo Jota.
Eddie Howe will want a response from Newcastle after a disappointing 2-0 home defeat to West Ham was followed by a 1-1 draw away to Crystal Palace on Saturday in which the Magpies only attempted one shot at goal, with zero on target. Marc Guéhi’s own goal had put Newcastle ahead before Daniel Muñoz’s last-gasp leveller for the hosts at Selhurst Park.
Newcastle sit 11th in the table heading into the midweek action and, if they are to improve on that position, will be desperate to see Alexander Isak shake off the first-half knock he suffered at Palace. Howe said on Tuesday: “Alex took a knock to his hip; we haven’t seen him in training yet, but we don’t think it’s a long-term injury.”
The Swedish striker has 21 goals in 30 home appearances in the Premier League, though he has managed just two goals from 18 shots at St. James’ Park this season. That 11% conversion rate is some way behind the 30% he achieved last campaign when he managed 14 times from 47 efforts.
His struggles in front of goal may explain why Newcastle have lost two of their last three Premier League home games, as many as they had in their previous 20 combined (W13 D5). Howe’s men have also managed just one goal across their last three home fixtures, having scored in 22 consecutive games before that (53 goals).
The injury issues are somewhat easing for the hosts, who will be without Sven Botman, Emil Krafth and Jamaal Lascelles. Howe will need everything from his squad on Wednesday, too, given Newcastle have won just one of their last 26 matches against teams leading the Premier League table (D7 L18).
The former Bournemouth boss has also never won in 12 attempts against Premier League leaders (D2 L10), the most such matches a manager has overseen in the competition without victory.
Newcastle vs Liverpool Head-to-Head
Newcastle are winless in their last 15 Premier League fixtures against Liverpool, losing the last six in a row.
Anthony Gordon scored the opener in this fixture last season, with Virgil van Dijk also sent off in the first half. Darwin Núñez’s late double, however, secured an unlikely 2-1 victory for Liverpool.
Indeed, Liverpool have won five of their last six away league games against Newcastle (D1). Their current three-match winning streak marks the club’s longest such run against the Magpies.
Newcastle vs Liverpool Prediction
It appears nothing can stop Liverpool at the moment, and the visitors triumphed again in 50.2% of 10,000 pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer.
Newcastle were afforded a 26.2% chance of victory in the same data-led sims, with the draw ranked at 23.6%.
Liverpool’s victory over Man City saw their title chances jump to 83.7% in Opta’s end-of-season predictions.
Newcastle vs Liverpool Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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