Two teams in contrasting form face off at Elland Road on Wednesday evening as Leeds United play host to Newcastle United.
Leeds have lost back-to-back games to slip down to 14th, while Newcastle are now three points better off than their opponents thanks to rare successive victories.
Match preview
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Newcastle followed up a late 2-0 win over Crystal Palace with a 2-1 victory against West Bromwich Albion to pick up two wins on the spin for the first time post-lockdown.
Dwight Gayle struck the winner against his former club eight minutes from time after Darnell Furlong had cancelled out Miguel Almiron's first-minute opener at St James' Park.
Those victories were a couple of weeks apart due to Newcastle's planned trip to Aston Villa being called off due to a coronavirus outbreak in their camp.
Steve Bruce had to make some changes for the West Brom match but the Magpies appear to be in the clear for this trip to Elland Road, where they are unbeaten in five league games.
Indeed, Newcastle have lost just one of their last 13 Premier League games in Yorkshire, winning nine of those, since losing 1-0 at Huddersfield Town in August 2017.
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Leeds will be desperate to put that right on Wednesday as they seek a return to winning ways.
The Whites have slipped three places since beating Everton 1-0 a little over a fortnight ago, losing both games since then despite scoring first in the losses to Chelsea and West Ham United.
Mateusz Klich gave Marcelo Bielsa's men the lead against West Ham, only for Tomas Soucek to equalise before half time and Angelo Ogbonna to complete the turnaround late on.
Leeds have now conceded seven goals from set-pieces this season, the joint highest in the league with Leicester City, and Bielsa admitted after the West Ham defeat that his side simply need to improve in that regard.
Incidentally, this will be Bielsa's 114th match in charge of Leeds in all competitions - the most that he has managed a single club in his career, overtaking the 113 he managed with Athletic Bilbao.
Leeds United Premier League form: LLDWLL
Newcastle United Premier League form: DWLLWW
Team News
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Given the quick turnaround in games, Leeds will still be without Gaetano Berardi, Robin Koch, Diego Llorente and Adam Forshaw for this match.
Bielsa may opt to freshen things up slightly, with Jamie Shackleton and Tyler Roberts contenders to come into the side after being introduced from the bench against West Ham.
Patrick Bamford has netted only once in his last four games, but he is still sixth in the Premier League scoring charts and is certain to lead the line here.
As for Newcastle, Jamaal Lascelles, Allan Saint-Maximin and Ryan Fraser missed the win over West Brom and are therefore doubtful to face Leeds.
Jacob Murphy was brought on for Emil Krafth at the weekend and may be asked to fill in out of position at right-back on Wednesday.
After scoring the winner last time out, Gayle will be hopeful of forcing his way into the side at the expense of Joelinton in attack.
Leeds United possible starting lineup:
Meslier; Dallas, Ayling, Cooper, Alioski; Phillips; Costa, Rodrigo, Klich, Harrison; Bamford
Newcastle United possible starting lineup:
Darlow; Murphy, Hayden, Clark, Lewis; Almiron, Longstaff, Shelvey, Ritchie; Joelinton, Wilson
We say: Leeds United 1-1 Newcastle United
This is the first Premier League meeting between the sides since January 2004 and it is Newcastle who enter the game in better form.
Leeds have struggled to hold onto leads in recent games and are slipping down the division, though they did remain unbeaten in all 14 of their midweek games in the Championship last season.
Not since November 2018 have Newcastle won three top-flight games in a row, meanwhile, and we can see that wait going on a little longer come the end of this contest.
Top betting tip
Video prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
Daniel Lewis
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Leeds United win with a probability of 52.49%. A draw had a probability of 23.8% and a win for Newcastle United had a probability of 23.75%.
The most likely scoreline for a Leeds United win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.38%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.73%) and 2-0 (8.98%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.24%), while for a Newcastle United win it was 0-1 (6.51%). The actual scoreline of 5-2 was predicted with a 0.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Leeds United would win this match.
