Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has backed Newcastle to beat Brentford 2-1 today, also claiming that a cup run and a top 10 finish would mark a successful season at St James’ Park.
The former defender was very impressed by Newcastle’s ability to ‘completely and utterly dismantle’ Fulham last weekend and is confident that we can overcome a Brentford team who have struggled for goals in the last two weeks.
In terms of the rest of the season, Merson has claimed that a good cup run – a foreign concept to the modern Newcastle fan – and a top 10 Premier League finish would be a ‘fantastic’ first full season as manager for Howe.
After finishing 11th last season despite not winning any of our first 14, the top half would certainly be an improvement, but with the right additions in January we could hope to find ourselves in an even healthier position by May.
As Merson suggests, the key to our success will be fitness – missing the likes of Bruno, Saint-Maximin and Wilson in recent weeks really hurt us – but as the winter window rolls around, we’ll hopefully be able to address that lack of squad depth.
Here’s what Merson had to say in his latest piece for Sportskeeda:
‘Brentford are on a run of two games without a goal, while Newcastle United completely and utterly dismantled Fulham last weekend. After Fulham went down to ten men, the Magpies made their man advantage count, fair play to them. They moved the ball around well and scored good goals, so Eddie Howe would’ve been really pleased as we often see teams who fail to capitalize on a sending off.
‘The Arsenal result has knocked Brentford sideways, so I don’t see them getting a positive result here. I fancy Newcastle to build on their good start to the season with a 2-1 win at home. If they get a top ten finish and an impressive cup run, it’ll be a fantastic full season as manager for Howe, who hasn’t done much wrong since joining the club under the new owners. Newcastle have a lot of work to do, but if they keep their players fit and revitalize their squad with a couple of fresh faces in January, they could be a force to be reckoned with.‘
Prediction: Newcastle United 2-1 Brentford
Oh what a surprise
P merson all for the toon now that we are winning .
He is so fickle no positive comments last season he is a joke pundit .stick to your London team comments
David Brewis(Quote)