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Burnley & Newcastle Clash On Monday Night Football

Premier League football is back in our lives, and the series of games that we’ve seen over the course of the weekend thus far certainly haven’t disappointed. We’ve seen the biggest and best sides from across the English game competing in order to try and build some momentum after the international break, which has made for some entertaining viewing. However, the weekend isn’t over yet and while some are choosing to focus on the ongoing Sunday fixtures, we’re going to look ahead to tomorrow evening as Monday Night Football returns to our screens with an intriguing encounter.

Burnley will be hosting Newcastle United at Turf Moor in a game between two teams who, in all honesty, will do well to avoid relegation into the Championship this season. While there are certainly teams in the division that are worse, both the Clarets and the Magpies have showcased some questionable traits since the season got underway that leads us to believe they’ll be scratching and clawing from now until May. We could be entirely wrong in that assumption, but it all depends on whether they can start to gel as cohesive units – and there’s still a lot left to be desired.

Burnley’s season started with great optimism up in Lancashire courtesy of their impending UEFA Europa League adventure, with many fans considering Sean Dyche to be one of the very best managers in the country. While some may still feel like that is a true statement, the dynamic of the club’s fortunes have definitely changed in recent months in a big way and it seems as if their fanbase have accepted that. They know that their side has been struggling to cope with so many competitions at once, and they know that their main objective is still going to be avoiding a slip down into the second tier.

Newcastle United had the same kind of vibe to start of the campaign, in the sense that the tension surrounding Mike Ashley and Rafa Benitez could’ve easily derailed their Premier League tenure. They seem to have got themselves together a little bit, though, and while their squad still leaves a lot to be desired, it feels like they’re making enough progress to warrant some cautious optimism. There are lingering problems as we all know but you need to get through the bad times in order to get to the good, and nobody knows that better than Newcastle fans.

Burnley’s last six game stretch has been an interesting one to say the least, and we don’t necessarily mean ‘interesting’ in the most flattering of ways. They kicked things off with a nice 2-1 win over Cardiff although that was still pretty touch and go, followed up by a 1-1 draw against Huddersfield Town who continue to struggle. Then, in back to back games, they were brought right back down to Earth with emphatic 5-0 and 4-0 losses to Manchester City and Chelsea respectively. They were also torn apart by West Ham who stuck four past them as well, but a 0-0 draw against Leicester stopped the flow of goals. For now, at least.

Newcastle’s six game stretch, on the other hand, started with many questioning whether or not the aforementioned Benitez was the right man for the job. They lost 2-0 to Leicester City, 3-2 to Manchester United and 1-0 to Brighton, leaving them closer to relegation than many would’ve liked. The 0-0 draw against an equally bad Southampton side didn’t exactly fill their fans with home, although the 1-0 win against Watford (while fortunate) signified that they are still able to grind out big results. Then, the win against Bournemouth (who are on fire) pretty much confirmed that Rafa was indeed still the lord and saviour of this team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g90DksTVvjc

This isn’t exactly a fixture that has just been sprung on us in the last few years, with the first meeting between the two teams taking place way back in 1895. You can tell how much the times have changed over the years, too, given that Burnley are the ones who lead the overall head to head standings 42-41 with 20 draws shoved in between for good measure. Their last meeting back in January ended in a 1-1 draw, although Burnley will rest easy knowing that Newcastle haven’t picked up a win against them since 1982.

Burnley have some injury news to discuss with Steven Defour being expected to be fit in time for the game, although James Tarkowski will probably be missing out in the wake of his hernia surgery. Johann Berg Gudmundsson will be a welcome member of the starting XI despite a calf problem, and while there are still issues around the squad Nick Pope, Stephen Ward and Ben Gibson are all said to be making good progress as the club begin to look ahead to the January transfer window and what kind of things they need to change.

Unfortunately for Newcastle, Paul Dummett has been ruled out of this one after sustaining a calf injury in Wales’ game against Denmark – with the tests not yet coming back to show how long he could be out. Jamaal Lascelles, Yoshinori Muto and Jonjo Shelvey will all face late fitness tests, which could prove to be the difference maker in this game. While we aren’t suggesting that Newcastle are destined to lose without those names or anything like that, their absence would certainly make a huge difference, and any Magpies fan who tells you any differently is likely lying to you.

Burnley vs Newcastle Betting Prediction

It feels like out of these two teams, Newcastle are going to be the ones who try and implement some attractive football into their game. Whether or not that pays off is another matter altogether but they certainly have the quality in their ranks to make something happen (although it’s few and far between), but the question remains as to whether or not Burnley’s nitty gritty style can get them a result. We think it’s going to be a tight, back and forth game between two teams who some would argue are heading in opposite directions.

We believe that Burnley are going to edge ahead courtesy of a somewhat fortunate goal towards the end of the first half, but Newcastle will respond almost immediately to bring themselves level. What will follow is a second half full of nerves and tension to the point where nobody can really find a legitimate breakthrough, which leads to a final scoreline of 1-1. Neither team will be particularly happy with that which seems like an obvious thing to suggest, but at least they would’ve been able to avoid the humiliation of a defeat to one of their relegation rivals.