Michael Owen has predicted Newcastle to play out a draw when they welcome Crystal Palace to St James’ Park on Saturday.
The former Magpies forward shared that he predicted the battle between the two sides to be a “low scoring” and “tight affair” based on the fact that they played out a stalemate towards the start of the season.
Owen said that he expected Newcastle to fall to defeat at the hands of Arsenal on Monday night at the Emirates, but reinforced that his former club can get points on the board once again at home.
“Newcastle as expected were defeated in London on Monday as Arsenal proved too strong but back on home turf the Toon can get back to winning ways. They are not totally safe from the drop but one more success should be sufficient,” he said in his BetVictor blog.
“With seven PL wins at St James Park United are strong although ironically Palace have tasted more success on their travels than at home. The Eagles were unable to prevent Spurs from crowning the opening of their new ground with victory on Wednesday evening where they also failed to score.
“The clubs played out a goalless draw earlier in the season and I expect another low scoring and tight affair.”
OPINION
Owen may have got it spot on in his prediction here. Earlier on in the season, the two teams played out a goalless draw that lacked any sort of entertainment or excitement. That being said, neither of them are famed as being the Premier League’s most prolific goal scorers, so it would not be a surprise if this game was yet another one that lacked the all important goals. Newcastle need at least one more win to be completely safe of the drop, and you have to say that it is a remarkable turnaround compared to the start of the campaign when they were struggling to piece together a victory. Aside from the Arsenal defeat, they have been in relatively good form, and this has no doubt been down to the signing of Miguel Almiron in January. Nevertheless, do not expect goals galore in this game – you are more likely to get none at all.
