Newcastle United head to The King Power Stadium to face Leicester looking to complete back-to-back wins after a first win of The Premier League season at the fifteenth attempt last week thanks to Callum Wilson's superb winning goal against Burnley that lifted the roof of St James' Park & ignited the Saudi revolution on Tyneside.
Newcastle are now just three points from safety from Watford in 17th who have 13 points compared to The Magpies' 10 thanks to seven accumulated points from draws with the January transfer window swinging open in three weeks time potentially opening an Aladdin's cave for The Magpies who have the money to buy any player in the world.
Between now and then, however, Newcastle face trips to Leicester and Liverpool before entertaining both Manchester City, and United, at St James' Park before ending 2021 with a trip to Everton to face former manager Rafa Benitez's men at Goodison Park.
Last year, Newcastle annihilated Leicester 4-2 at The King Power Stadium:
in a superb 17-point run-in to the season and were 4-0 up in The Foxes' den before easing off the gas with the game won in the most scintillating display of the season including the Goal of the Season with all 11 players involved in the move:
Another performance and result like that will truly kickstart Newcastle's season and back-to-back wins would set up a real platform for ending 2021 well and survival.
Leicester have problems of their own with seven players who were either ill or tested positive with Covid19 ahead of their trip to Napoli in The Europa League:
Brendan Rodgers was still able to put out a strong side against Napoli but to no avail as they were beaten 3-2 and crashed out of The Europa League and, instead, will fight for the inaugural Europa Conference League trophy with Tottenham Hotspur.
Leicester are yet to win a game in December after a draw with Southampton and defeat by Aston Villa in The Premier League and The Foxes have only won once in their last six top flight games beating Watford 4-2 in late November with their last clean sheet in any competition coming back in September away to Millwall and Rodgers again lamented his side's defensive deficiencies in his post-game presser last night:
Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa caused havoc from set pieces in their win against The Foxes on Sunday and Newcastle will be hoping to emulate that this weekend with some big headers of the ball of their own in the shape of Jamaal Lascelles, Fabian Schar, Callum Wilson, Joe Willock and Joelinton.
Eddie Howe spoke about the importance of that first win against Burnley in his pre-match press conference:
and it was a victory that was celebrated by Geordies everywhere and even received congratulations from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund's official Twitter:
Howe paid tribute to Miguel Almiron's performance against The Clarets:
and the Paraguyan echoed his Head Coach's thoughts to NUFC TV:
Both will be hoping to channel that positivity and gain some real momentum with a second victory that could prove crucial to The Magpies' season.
Prediction - Newcastle 3 Leicester 2
Predicted Line-Ups:
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