HomeFeatured ArticlesManchester City v Newcastle United Preview | Stats, Odds & Key Men

Manchester City v Newcastle United Preview | Stats, Odds & Key Men

Newcastle United travel to title favourites Manchester City for the first Monday Night Football of the season and both teams will hope to have a much improved season this term.

After a season without trophies and a disappointing attempt to retain the title as Champions of England, Manchester City faced a big summer. The appointment of Manuel Pellegrini was followed by the signings of Fernandinho, Jesus Navas, Stevan Jovetic and Alvaro Negredo, key areas of the side that needed improving, and has helped to raise the excitement levels around the club.

Man City Vs Newcastle

Last year Newcastle went in with hope and expectation of a good season after an impressive 5th place finish in 2011/12, which unfortunately never materialised. Their good run in the Europa League, which saw Newcastle reach the quarter finals, affected their league form as they flirted dangerously with relegation for the second half of the season. Like Man City, the Magpies failed to strengthen in the summer transfer to help them push on, but another raid of some of France’s top talent in January helped Newcastle to retain their Premier League status.

This summer will feel like déjà vu for supporters as the acquisition of Loic Remy, a loan signing from QPR, is their only involvement in the transfer window thus far. Add to that the return of former manager Joe Kinnear, and the near appointment of Mick Harford as a coach, Mike Ashley appears to have shot himself in the foot after finally gaining some requisition from the fans.

Interesting Stats

Manchester City had the best defence in the league and kept 18 clean sheets throughout the season, but they only scored 66 goals last season, 20 less than Manchester United, which ultimately cost them the league.

The ‘French Revolution’ has been well documented at Newcastle, the club held a special French styled day at the Southampton home game last season, so it is no surprise that English players only had  a 4.4% input for the overall goals scored by Newcastle in the league.

Key Players

After an impressive debut season in the Premier League and helping Manchester City to win their first Premier League title, David Silva struggled to have the same impression on the pitch last season.  Both his goal and assist tally were down in 2012/13, 6 goals/15 assists in 2012 and 4 goals/8 assists in 2013, but Silva is still a key player for City and will be important in breaking down the Newcastle defence. In the last two seasons he has created 104 chances for his team mates and with the recruitment of Jovetic and Negredo, as well as a fully fit Aguero, these chances should be turned into goals – Manchester City to score over 2 and 2.5 goals looks good at 1.917 and over 3 goals in the game is on offer at odds of 2.00.

With Man City likely to have dominant spells during the game it’ll be important for Newcastle to keep possession to help relieve pressure on their defensive backline – Cabaye will be pivotal to this. Despite missing a chunk of last season, Cabaye had a pass completion of 92% in the defensive zone (425 passes completed out of 460). The French midfielder is also dangerous from set pieces, both as a goal threat and creating chances for team mates (18 chances were created from set plays), and these will be important if Newcastle hope to get anything from the game against the team with the league’s best defence in the last 2 years – a win is available at big odds of 11.67 while a draw is 5.84.

Team News                                                        

Manchester City look set to be without Matija Nastasic, who will be replaced by Lescott, after the young defender injured his ankle on the controversial pitch in china during pre-season. Sergio Aguero looks set to return the side though after recovering from a knee injury.

New signing Loic Remy will have to wait for his Newcastle debut as he misses the first few weeks of the season with a calf injury.

Prediction

After their reinforcements in the summer, Manchester City look a much dangerous prospect this season – but a City win is only 1.31, which doesn’t offer much value if you only keep to small bets. Man City 3 -0 Newcastle.

Pinnacle Odds

Sure bet – Manchester City to score over 2 and 2.5 goals – 1.917. Better value than a win – Manchester City -1.5 Handicap – 1.885

For more Premier League Season previews and odds visit Pinnacle Sports.

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