English Premier League action returns with a reduced coupon this weekend and the pick of Saturday's matches sees Newcastle host Manchester City

Newcastle

Newcastle will be boosted by a 3-0 win away to local rivals Sunderland in the third round of the FA Cup last weekend and they now switch attention to improving on a poor run of results in the league which has seen them slide down to ninth, 11 points shy of a top 4 spot.

Over the festive season Newcastle lost 3 successive league games, at Luton (1-0), at home to Forest (3-1) and away to Liverpool (4-2). Their loss to Forest was just a second home defeat of the season with Liverpool the only other side to have won a league game at St. James Park in the current campaign, the other 8 have all been won by Newcastle.

Man City

After winning the Fifa Club World Cup before Xmas City won back to back league games, at Everton 3-1) and at home to Sheffield United (2-0). They put Huddersfield away 5-0 in an FA Cup home fixture last weekend when Haalaand was still absent but de Bruyne made his return from injury from the bench. City come into the game in third spot, 5 points behind league leaders Liverpool but with 1 game in hand.

Recent Head to Head

The first league meeting this season took place in Manchester in August and City win it 1-0 thanks to a first half goal from Alvarez.

A subsequent EFL Cup clash in Newcastle saw Eddie Howe's side win 1-0 although both teams made plenty of changes to their regular starting line ups.

When the teams met in Newcastle last season they played out a thrilling 3-3 draw

The Betting

At the time of writing Newcastle are trading at 4/1 to win the game with the draw priced at 7/2 and City can be backed at around 6/10

A game of 3 goals or more is priced at 6/10 and it's 7/10 for both teams to score

The Verdict:

Newcastle are gradually getting some of their injured players back and the same can be said of City although Haaland's potential involvement will be worth monitoring.

We have seen over 3.5 goals arrive in the last 2 Newcastle league games and 2 of the last 3 involving City, it what should be a cracking watch I'll take my chances

on 4 goals or more in total here.

Bets: Total match goals over 3.5 at 15/10 with BetXchange

Note, odds are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change

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