Paul Merson has provided his prediction for Crystal Palace vs Newcastle United on Wednesday night.
The Magpies are looking to make it three wins on the bounce at Crystal Palace’s expense, and will be full of confidence after that display against Tottenham Hotspur just over a week ago.
On top of that, the Newcastle United players should be feeling refreshed after not playing at the weekend due to Manchester United’s FA Cup commitments.
In contrast, Crystal Palace have a lot of momentum going into this game. First, they massively dented Liverpool’s title hopes by beating them 1-0 at Anfield. Then they followed that up with an incredible 5-2 win over West Ham United, meaning they are looking for their own hat-trick of wins on Wednesday night.
Something will have to give at Selhurst Park, and Chris Sutton has actually predicted that Oliver Glasner’s side will beat Newcastle.
He thinks the Eagles will win 2-1, but Paul Merson disagrees.
Paul Merson predicts Crystal Palace vs Newcastle United
Merson has predicted the midweek Premier League fixtures for Sportskeeda.
He has given his verdict on Crystal Palace vs Newcastle United, and believes Wednesday night’s game will end in a 2-2 draw.
“Who saw that Crystal Palace performance coming the other day?” he wrote.
“They have three matchwinners in attack with Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise and Jean-Philippe Mateta and in my opinion, that’s the best front three in the bottom half of the Premier League.
“Newcastle United would have looked at this one as a winnable game a couple of weeks ago, but the situation has changed dramatically. I’m going for the two sides the share the spoils in an entertaining contest.”
Newcastle against Crystal Palace is rarely entertaining
Merson is slightly more optimistic than Sutton, but still does not envision Newcastle picking up all three points at Selhurst Park. He is predicting a draw, which would give Manchester United the chance to leapfrog the Magpies into sixth.
The former Arsenal forward is obviously very impressed with Palace’s recent form, but it is hard to imagine that Newcastle will see this fixture as any less winnable. It is not suddenly an impossible task just because they have won two games.
But the most interesting thing about Merson’s prediction is that he thinks it will be an entertaining game. That is rarely the case when Newcastle United and Crystal Palace meet.
Last season’s game at Selhurst Park was a 0-0 draw, while the year before that the same fixture ended 1-1. On that day, Palace battered Graeme Jones’ Magpies, only for Callum Wilson to snatch a point with a brilliant overhead kick.
Hopefully Wednesday night’s game is a bit more of a spectacle, but the main thing for Eddie Howe will be getting three points as he continues his quest towards the Europa or Europa Conference League.
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