Newcastle United resume their Premier League relegation battle with a home match against top-four chasing Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.
The Magpies are winless in six and are just two points above the relegation zone, while Tottenham's 2-0 win at Aston Villa before the international break moved them into sixth.
Match preview
© Reuters
From being 11th and just two points off a European spot on December 12 to desperately hanging on for survival, it has been quite the plight for Newcastle over the past four months.
Steve Bruce's men fell to a 3-0 loss at relegation rivals Brighton & Hove Albion two weeks ago and it now looks set to be a shootout between United and Fulham for 17th place.
Fulham occupy the final relegation spot and have played a game more than Newcastle, but they have a chance to close the gap when they travel to Aston Villa on Sunday.
Newcastle know that they quite simply need to put some wins on the board, and a fixture that they would once be happy to claim a point from may no longer be good enough.
The 11 points accrued by Newcastle since December 12 is the fewest of any Premier League side over that period, yet Bruce remains in a job with nine games to go.
The Magpies face Tottenham, West Ham United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Leicester City, Manchester City in the final stretch, before a final-day trip to Fulham.
Bruce will be eager to open up a four-point gap on Fulham before that showdown at Craven Cottage, though earning a much-needed victory this weekend will be tough.
© Reuters
United have lost five of their last six home league games with Tottenham, including each of the last three, but they did claim a dramatic 1-1 draw in September's reverse fixture.
Tottenham's form has been pretty poor in recent weeks, having exited the Europa League in the last 16 with a horror defeat in Dinamo Zagreb and losing 2-1 to Arsenal in the league.
However, Jose Mourinho's charges did respond with that victory at Villa before the two-week break and they also have an EFL Cup final with Man City to look forward to this month.
Indeed, for all the talk of how poor Spurs have been of late, they have won four of their last five league games and are three points behind Chelsea in fourth place.
The aim for Mourinho over the next seven weeks is clear - win the EFL Cup and finish fourth in the Premier League - so hitting the ground running this weekend is imperative.
- L
- L
- D
- D
- D
- L
- L
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- L
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Newcastle have been without Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson for a number of weeks, but both players are closing in on a return to first-team action.
Goalkeeper Martin Dubravka missed Slovakia's 2-2 draw with Malta last weekend with a stomach bug and will be assessed ahead of Sunday's visit of Spurs.
Bruce may opt to freshen things up on the back of the defeat to Brighton, which could mean the likes of Jeff Hendrick and Dwight Gayle coming in.
As for Tottenham, Erik Lamela is back in contention after serving a one-match ban against Villa.
Key man Son Heung-min remains absent for the time being, however, and Ben Davies also returned early from international duty with a "substantial" injury.
Fellow full-backs Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilon are also fitness doubts, meaning that Japhet Tanganga may get another start in the backline.
Harry Kane has returned from England duty injury free and may once again link up with Carlos Vinicius up top, having worked well together at Villa Park.
Newcastle United possible starting lineup:
Darlow; Manquillo, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett; Willock, Shelvey, Hendrick; Joelinton, Almiron, Fraser
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Lloris; Tanganga, Sanchez, Rodon, Reguilon; Lo Celso, Ndombele, Hojbjerg, Lucas; Kane, Vinicius
We say: Newcastle United 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
No Premier League team has been in worse form than Newcastle since mid-December, and the Magpies enter this game on the back of a crushing 3-0 loss at Brighton last time out.
Tottenham returned to winning ways with victory at Villa two weeks ago and need to put together a winning run if they are to finish in the top four.
Assuming the majority of their big-hitters are available, we can see Spurs kicking off a crucial period with three points on Sunday.
Top 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 Tottenham Hotspur win with a probability of 59.73%. A draw had a probability of 21.7% and a win for Newcastle United had a probability of 18.54%.
The most likely scoreline for a Tottenham Hotspur win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.53%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.19%) and 1-2 (9.94%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.28%), while for a Newcastle United win it was 1-0 (5.32%). The actual scoreline of 2-2 was predicted with a 4.9% likelihood.
