Newcastle v Stoke Preview | Team News, Stats & Key Men

Newcastle host in-form Stoke City on Sunday in a tie between the 10^th and 11^th spot in the Premier League table. While Stoke come of consecutive wins over Leicester and QPR garnering a total of 10 points in the last 5 games, Newcastle have had a mixed bag of results with 2 wins and 2 losses apart from a draw in the last 5 games.

Team News

Newcastle

Newcastle have a long list of absentees for this fixture which figures the likes of Taylor (Knee), De Jong (Thigh), Aarons (Hamstring) Steven Taylor ( Calf) and Elliot (Hip). However, dummet is expected to be in contention for the game and that wud be an immense boost for the manager Carver. However, with Tiote awaythe African continental championship, the manager will not have to tinker with his line up.

Stoke

Stoke were dealt a blow when captain defender Shawcross was ruled out for 3 weeks with a Groin injury. The other absentee for the Potters are going to be Pieters (Inguinal Hernia), Krkic (ACL Knee) and Odemwingie (ACL Knee). Despite fears of a knee injury, last week’s star performer Jonathan Walters is set to undergo a late fitness test before being declared fit.

Interesting Facts

Papiss Cisse has scored four in his last six Premier League appearances against The Potters.

Stoke City have lost 16 of their 31 Premier League away games under Mark Hughes, winning seven.

Possible Line-up

Newcastle

Krul, Janmaat, Williamson, Coloccini, Haidara, Sissoko, Anita, Colback, Cabella, Perez, Ameobi

Stoke City

Begovic, Bardsley, Muniesa, Wollscheid, Wilson, Nzonzi, Whelan, Arnautovic, Ireland, Moses, Crouch

Key Men

Newcastle – Ayoze Perez

The young Spaniard has done really well to leave a mark in this campaign. With 5 goals in the campaign, only behind Cisse’s 9 for Newcastle, he has turned himself from a bit part player to a regular starter at St. James Park. He will be up against a defense that is best known to dominate the physical proceedings in the game. He will need to compensate for the lack of physical attributes with his pace and trickery and should he make small spaces to work himself into, he would be an enormous threat to the Stoke defence.

Stoke – Jonathan Walters

Walters comes into this game having bagged a superb hat-trick against QPR. The 31 year old Club veteran sits atop the scoring charts at Stoke and has put in another season of dogged performances so far. Known for always willing to travel the extra mile for the team, Walters is more than an attacker often adding steel to Stoke defence. He will be keen to carry on his scoring form against Newcastle and help a develop a healthy lead over the Magpies.

Head To Head

Prediction

While Newcastle aren’t down in the dumps, Stoke’s superior form over the last few weeks makes them our favourites for this game. We expect Stoke to a chalk out a 1-2 win at the St. James Park.