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Thursday 18 October 2018

Newcastle United vs Brighton and Hove Albion - 20th Oct


While it might only be October, this has all the hallmarks of a six pointer. Newcastle United are six adrift of their opponents, while Brighton ended a five match winless run with a win last time out. United meanwhile threw a 2-0 lead against Manchester United to lose 3-2 and mean they are yet to win this year.

The question in this game is not so much who is better, but rather who feels more confident to see out a match.

Newcastle United News


Newcastle will be without a large chunk of players from an already thin squad. Ciaran Clark Salomon Rondon, Paul Dummett and Yoshinori Muto are all doubts for this game, as is Kenedy. Florian Lejune is still out, too.

They will be without a lot of players, meaning that it will be down to the engine room of Mohamed Diame and Jonjo Shelvey to get Newcastle up the pitch into attacking positions. With such a paucity of quality even with a fully fit squad, though, is that possible?

Brighton and Hove Albion News


Brighton meanwhile will be without Davy Propper and Pascal Gross, meaning that they will be missing two of their most important midfielders. Gaetan Bong and Dale Stephens are doubts, too, meaning that Chris Hughton will need to stretch his reserves of talent if he wants to get a win back at his old club.

The injuries are mounting up a bit for a squad that already looked limited in terms of quality. Can they correct that and get a result here despite being depleted?

Verdict


We can see Newcastle finally breaking their winless un in this game. Brighton have not been great despite their win against West Ham, and Newcastle will need to start getting positive results sooner or later. If they cannot defeat a low in confidence and injury stricken Brighton, it’s not likely they’ll win a game!

Brighton are a good side, but in their present form Newcastle should have all eyes on victory here. It’s now or never for the Toon.