Alan Shearer believes Newcastle United will have been taking time to reflect on Monday night’s demoralising defeat to West Ham before this weekend’s trip to Crystal Palace.
The Magpies suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Hammers at St James’ Park, which was both a disappointing result and performance following their pre-international break form which saw wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest.
The reverse means they will start the weekend 10th in the Premier League table, although the congested nature of the top flight means they are just four points off the Champions League places.
Next up for Eddie Howe’s side is a Saturday 3pm kick-off away to Crystal Palace, who sit second-bottom in the table, but held Aston Villa to a 2-2 draw at the weekend.
Alan Shearer predicts Crystal Palace-Newcastle United result
Former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer has had his say on this weekend’s clash and predicts a tight encounter.
“This is a tough one to predict,” he told the Metro. “With what happened to Newcastle on Monday evening, they’ll have had a few days to reflect.
“There’s a vulnerability about Crystal Palace albeit they got a really good result last weekend against Aston Villa and perhaps deserved to win the game. I’ll go for a draw.”
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Shearer’s verdict sees him agree with Chris Sutton’s prediction of a draw, while Paul Merson also admitted the match-up left him ‘baffled’ when trying to come up with a winner for this one.
Eddie Howe optimistic about injuries
Monday night’s defeat was compounded by the sight of Bruno Guiamaraes limping off with six minutes to go, with the midfielder absent from training photos that the club posted on Wednesday.
Joe Willock also came off against the Hammers, but Howe is optimistic the pair will feature this weekend.
“They have a chance to play,” he said when asked if the pair could play against Crystal Palace.
“They’re not serious injuries. We’ll make a decision today.”
Should Bruno not make it, Sandro Tonali will be eager to replace him, with Howe adding that the Italian has trained ‘especially’ well this week.
“Sandro’s been good,” Howe added. “He’s trained really well, especially this week. He did really well against Forest when the game was in the balance. He played a big part in moving the game towards us.”
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