Newcastle United v Norwich City the preview
By Jamie-lee Weston
Rockbottom Newcastle United will be looking for their first victory in 13 games, against fellow strugglers Norwich City tonight. The magpies were easily beaten 2-0 by Arsenal last time out, while Norwich City stopped Wolverhampton Wanderers in their tracks.
It will be Eddie Howe’s first time in the St James’ Park dugout and he is counting on the Newcastle fans to encourage his team “Getting the crowd, to help us on, will hopefully lift the players to produce a great performance”.
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Norwich City are currently unbeaten under new their boss with seven points in their past three games. But Dean Smith is aware of the Newcastle fans “we have to force those mistakes and if we can can get those silences it shows we are doing okay”.
The fact that both teams are in a dire need of the three points, has not slipped Howe’s mind “for us it’s about this week and the magnitude of the games we having coming up”.
So with Newcastle having nothing left to loose, will the game be high scoring? Dean Smith hopes not “because my first thing(when he took over the team) was to become a tough team to beat, so I don’t want to see that open basketball game”.
The stats
The magpies have not lost a league fixture at home to the canaries since 1988.
Newcastle United have lost their last three Premier League games when playing on a Tuesday. That’s six of their eight midweek games. They also, have conceded a league-high of 29 goals.
If Norwich City win tonight, it would be the first time they have won back-to-back away matches in the top flight for the first time in nearly ten years.
The magpies have never won a Premier League game on a Tuesday after 14 attempts. Their shot conversion rate of 5.2% is the worst in the Premier League.
Before Kick off Newcastle United currently sit 20th in the Premier League with 6 points from 13 games.
Norwich City are currently 19th and have 9 points from 13 games.
Team News
Newcastle are missing duo Jamal Lascelles and Matt Ritchie due to suspension. So Ciaran Clark and Jamal Lewis will likely be Howe’s choices at the back. While in the midfield, Miguel Almiron and Isaac Hayden will be available.
Meanwhile, Norwich’s midfielder Mathias Normann will still be out with a recurring pelvic issue. So it could mean Lukas Rupp will get a start.
This game is available on Amazon Prime. Kick off at 19:30 pm.
