Newcastle/ Aston Villa, 8pm, Setanta Sports 1, Free £10 bet
The progress Newcastle have made under Joe Kinnear hasn’t been quite as spectacular as Harry Redknapp’s start at Tottenham, but the sweary Irishman’s impact might be more noticeable if they claim a point tonight, putting the north Londoners back on the bottom of the table. Here’s why chickendinner believe they should get some points tonight:
1. Aston Villa have taken three points on just two of their last fifteen Premier League visits to St James’ Park.
2. From 1990 onwards, Aston Villa have only won consecutive games against the Magpies on one occasion - in 2004-05. Martin O’Neill’s side won the last encounter in February.
3. Under Kinnear, Newcastle have turned full circle from a run of three consecutive home defeats to draw with Manchester City and beat West Brom.
4. Aston Villa have won just three of their last seven away league games and they were rather fortunate to catch both Tottenham and Wigan when they were struggling for form.
5. Since Martin O’Neill took charge in 2006, Villa have never had more than one block of consecutive league away wins in a season. Seeing as they have already won successive games against Tottenham and West Brom, that suggests they can’t build on the win at Wigan.
More terribly interesting statistics
» Four of Newcastle’s five home games and four of Aston Villa’s five away games have featured over 2.5 goals. The 4/5 on offer from Coral therefore looks like good value.
» In six of the last seven clashes between the two sides that haven’t finished goalless, the opening goal has been scored in the first five minutes. Bet365 are offering 7/2 on the opener coming in the first ten minutes, which is also what happened in Newcastle’s last home game against West Brom.
Super special Spoiler reader offer: Having a punt on tonight’s game? Get £10 of free no-strings-attached bets from Paddy Power right here. You’re welcome.
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11 responses so far
1 Andy P // Nov 3, 2008 at 4:42 pm
what a load of shit cmon villa
2 stu c // Nov 3, 2008 at 5:19 pm
the mighty claret n blue will murder them geordies 2nite. the gap inquality is simply 2 wide.
3 Nick // Nov 3, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I think this is what is known as ‘clutching at straws’!! The fact that Newcastle are bottom of the table and consider a home draw to be a good result, whereas Villa are flying high and scoring goals for fun tells me that the most likely result is a Villa win.
4 tom6786 // Nov 3, 2008 at 5:44 pm
This is a joke article right? what a load of bollocks
5 yakubu // Nov 3, 2008 at 7:44 pm
MARTINS TO SCORE TONIGHT
6 yakubu // Nov 3, 2008 at 9:58 pm
i said it, and it happened. Martins scored 2 goals.
A fit Obafemi Akinwunmi Martins is better than Michael James Owen
7 Upminster Iron // Nov 3, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Crap article, rubbish predictions. You couldn’t even predict what day it will be tomorrow. Villa are the best team ever - didn’t you see them beat Wigan? Like they could ever possibly in a million years lose away to the team who are bottom of the league - morons!
Oh, wait a minute…
PS: Villa fans, this is why you should do what the Spurs fans do and wait until full-time before crowing!
8 Raph88 // Nov 3, 2008 at 11:32 pm
top notch stuff chicken dinner and nice one the spoiler.
aston villa fans should go back to being nice. it suits them much better instead of trying to copy hysterical spurs fans.
9 Davey G // Nov 4, 2008 at 9:38 am
You what, you what, you what you what you what???
Villa fans, you are becoming as delusional as the Spuds fans!!
Now who licks rather silly today then, and who may ask are the morons now??
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Lets all laugh at Villa, lets all laugh at Villa ha ha ha ha
10 pt // Nov 4, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Come on now, you beat us but there’s no way any Newcastle fan can be laughing at us, I think there’s a way to go before you’re in that position. We were shit, you were shit, you got a lucky goal and fair play to you, you picked it up and we didn’t look like scoring after that.
As for us being delusional, I don’t think many people were expecting you to beat us 2-0 last night, you lot calling us delusional were probably thinking you’d lose or at least drop points.
Well played anyway, one more upset to our otherwise decent start. At least you’ve put spurs back on the bottom anyway.
UTV
11 Upminster Iron // Nov 4, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Villa fans are getting way ahead of themselves. You just need to look at your league results since O’Neill took over to see how stop-start you are. You win two or three convincingly then draw/lose two or three unconvincingly - that’s still the case. Villa will still finish quite highly because there are at least ten teams (including mine) in a relegation battle who keep taking points off each other. The top four will stay the same though and I fancy Everton for fifth again with Villa possibly sixth.