Mark Lawrenson has predicted that Bournemouth will win 2-0 against Newcastle United when the south coast side travel to St James’ Park on Saturday.
Steve Bruce’s men may be on a high after their 3-2 win away at West Ham last week but that has not stopped Lawrenson from backing the Cherries to extend their unbeaten run to four Premier League matches.
Bournemouth have not conceded in any of their last three games and won 1-0 against Manchester United last week.
BBC pundit Lawrenson has tipped Eddie Howe’s men to build on that this weekend, despite the positive result that Newcastle enjoyed at the London Stadium.
“Bournemouth got a really good result against Manchester United last weekend, and I have them down as quite a streaky team – in that they tend to have bursts of good form,” said Lawrenson on the BBC Sport website.
“The Cherries have also kept three clean sheets in a row now, which is important for them because I would always back them to score.
“The same cannot be said for Newcastle. The Magpies played well when they beat West Ham, but I don’t see them building on that result.”
OPINION
Lawrenson is being pretty harsh Newcastle here. Bruce’s men were brilliant at West Ham last weekend and deserve a lot of credit for their performance so to suggest that the Magpies are going to lose 2-0 could be wrong. Bournemouth are in good form but they are not exactly scoring goals for fun. The Cherries fired blanks in 0-0 draws against Norwich and Watford before their narrow 1-0 win over Man United. If Bournemouth struggled to score against two of the worst defences in the Premier League then they may struggle when they take on Newcastle’s impressive back-five this weekend. It could well be another 0-0 draw. Both teams are defending well at the moment but if anyone is going to snatch a win, it is more than likely going to be Bournemouth. We are predicting a goalless draw at St James’ Park this weekend but would not be shocked if Howe’s side return to the south coast with three points.
