After an unprecedented run of five straight home games, Newcastle United are back on the road this weekend, returning to Premier League action away to Chelsea.
We’ve shown signs of improvement away from St James’ Park in our last four, winning three at Spurs (1-2), Aston Villa (1-3) and Qarabag (1-6) before pushing Man City all the way in that 2-1 defeat at the Etihad last month.
Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Barcelona was both brilliant and a bitter pill to swallow. We were seconds from a famous win and it’s another late goal conceded, but we have to take the positives into Saturday night’s trip to Stamford Bridge: a place we’ve not won since THAT Papiss Cisse wonderstrike in 2012.
There may be a temptation to have one eye on next week’s decider at the Nou Camp, but we made that mistake against Man City last weekend and paid the price. With this another pivotal weekend in our push to get back in those European spots, where Brentford (7th), Bournemouth (9th) and Fulham (10th) all have winnable fixtures, we can’t afford to slip any further off the pace.
Speaking to the media ahead of the match, Eddie Howe discussed our response to Tuesday’s night of mixed emotions:
> _“The players have responded pretty well, I think. Of course it was big disappointment to the end of the game (but) a lot of pride in the performance overall. This season, the players have built up really good resilience to results and disappointments and successes._
>
> _“We’ve had to take everything in our stride, because we know we’ve got another game just around the corner and you can’t let what happened in one game affect the next._
>
> _“So we’ve tried very quickly to get our focus onto Chelsea. We know the week ahead is a big one, but we have to concentrate on this game._
>
> _“There’s mental challenges for this game that we’re going to have to try and get right, because obviously there’ll be a lot of focus on the Barcelona game, and rightly so. But this game’s a very tough one if we’re not focused 100 per cent on Chelsea.”_
Team news
---------
Tino Livramento is in contention to start and Anthony Gordon has recovered from illness, but Lewis Miley, Bruno Guimaraes, Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth remain out.
Chelsea’s Pedro Neto is suspended, with Estevao also ruled out. Jamie Gittens could come back into contention, with he or Alejandro Garnacho likely to start on the left in Neto’s absence.
Predicted XI
------------
**(4-3-3):** Ramsdale _– Livramento, Thiaw, Burn, Hall – Ramsey, Tonali, Joelinton – Murphy, Woltemade, Gordon._
**OUT:** _Trippier, Elanga, Barnes, Osula._
**IN:** _Livramento, Murphy, Gordon, Woltemade._
Match prediction
----------------
Chelsea have drawn their last two Premier League home games, dropping points to Burnley and Leeds, and I think we’ll continue that theme this weekend.
A point wouldn’t be a great result should Brentford beat Wolves and Bournemouth win at Burnley, but I’m hoping we arrive with no fear, plenty of belief from our display against Barcelona and full focus on getting back up the league table before any eyes turn to our decider at the Nou Camp.
**Prediction:** Chelsea 2-2 Newcastle
Howay the lads!