Paul Merson verdict on Newcastle United chances of finishing top four and more immediately… | OneFootball

Paul Merson talking about Newcastle United.

The former Middlesbrough and Walsall player giving his verdict on what will happen at St James’ Park on Saturday.

Paul Merson also saying what he thinks will be the position for Eddie Howe and his players when the Premier League season ends in May.

The Merson verdict on the fight for top four, is that both Newcastle United and Man U will still be in there when the 38 games are done.

As part of his reasoning, Paul Merson says he doesn’t see Newcastle United dropping out of the Champions League placings in the near future, due to the ‘fixtures they’ve got coming up’ shortly.

The first of those is of course Newcastle v West Ham on Saturday at St James’ Park.

Rather confusingly though (not unusual when Paul Merson is giving his reasoning…), despite talking about the upcoming NUFC fixtures in a positive way, the player turned pundit thinks Saturday’s game will end up goalless and Eddie Howe’s team pick up only a point.

Whilst I don’t take any game for granted and as Paul Merson points out, Bruno will be missed, however, I still think that for the overwhelming majority of neutrals, they will look at the facts and see this as almost sure to be a home win.

West Ham beat a woeful Everton at home in their last PL match but the seven before that were six defeats and one draw.

Anything but a win in that game and the Hammers would now be in the relegation zone, rather than just outside it.

A major reason for that is their terrible away form, seven defeats, draws at fellow relegation strugglers Southampton and Leeds, whilst the only win on the road was at Villa in August when they (Villa) were all over the place.

Whilst Newcastle United have failed to convert many of the recent chances they have created, the bottom line is that they have still won nine of their last ten home games (all competitions), the draw with Leeds the exception. Whilst only five PL clubs have scored more in their home matches than NUFC.

As for West Ham, only one of their ten PL away matches have seen them keep a clean sheet and that was almost six months ago in that August win at Villa Park.

Anything can happen in football but I think still fair to say that everything is pointing to a Newcastle win over West Ham, if they play anything close to how they have done recently.

Paul Merson speaking to Sportskeeda:

“I don’t see Newcastle dropping out of the top-four race with the fixtures they’ve got coming up.

“Unless Manchester United and Newcastle struggle with their form for the rest of the season, it’ll be near-impossible for Chelsea and Liverpool to catch up with them.

“Newcastle are flying along but I think this will be a hard game for them.

“Bruno Guimaraes can’t play this match and he’s going to be a massive miss.

“Newcastle were playing mind-blowing football against Southampton in the first 30 minutes but they were just hanging on in the end.

“Defensively, Newcastle are very good.

“West Ham haven’t been great in the Premier League but they’re always a danger and don’t get blown away.

“This is a difficult game for both teams and I’m going with a draw.