Sports Blog 23/04/2018: Premier League Preview – Everton vs Newcastle, Monday 23rd April 2018

Can Everton or Newcastle keep up a long shot push for a place in Europe, at 8pm on Sky Sports?

The Toon perhaps stand the best chance of overtaking Burnley, nabbing 7th place and a therefore a spit in the Europa League’s 2nd qualifying round. It will take a fair amount of luck to do so, however. Currently Newcastle sit in 10th on 41 points, 12 points behind the Clarets but with 2 games in hand. If Rafa Benitez were to lead his men to 5 wins in their final 5 games, and Burnley were to slip up in their own run-in, then Newcastle would just about do it.



That is, of course, a lot of ifs. Yet the Toon are in the midst of a tidy little period of form. They have 4 wins in 4 games, and while it isn’t much of a surprise that they beat Southampton and Huddersfield, victories over Leicester and, certainly, Arsenal are far more noteworthy. Ayoze Perez has found his feet in that time, scoring 3 in 4 games to sit at a Super Mega PGM of 10-14, behind the likes of Dwight Gayle, at 21-26, and Islam Slimani, at 20-24, despite having more goals in 2017/18.

Like Newcastle, the Toffees could also make their way to Europe through a combination of season-ending unbeaten run and Burnley collapse. Unlike the Toon, however, Everton have looked pretty limp in the last few weeks. They were beaten 3-1 by champions Manchester City at the end of March, and though a 0-0 draw against Liverpool isn’t bad, a 0-0 tie against the relegation-flirting Swansea is less impressive.

Sam Allardyce could really do with Wayne Rooney picking himself off the floor. Though he is the club’s top scorer this season with 11 goals in all competitions, he hasn’t actually found the back of the net in the Premier League since mid-December. However, in his career he has scored 15 league goals against Newcastle, more than he has against any other opponent, leaving him with a Super Mega PGM of 18-22.

Despite the discrepancies in form Allardyce’s lot have the advantage, at an Everton/Newcastle Goal Supremacy spread of 0.2-0.4 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.3-2.5.