Newcastle must bounce back from their 4-1 hammering at home against Bournemouth with a trip to Southampton at the foot of the Premier League table.
Justin Kluivert’s hat-trick last Saturday helped the Cherries to an emphatic and deserved win, while the Saints have had a tough time under new boss Ivan Juric.
After collapsing late at Man Utd in a 3-1 defeat, Southampton were then on the receiving end of goals from ex-Mags Chris Wood and Elliot Anderson on Sunday in a narrow 3-2 defeat, but Paul Merson expects our meeting this weekend to be nowhere near as tight…
Merson previews and predicts Saints trip
Paul Merson is backing Eddie Howe’s Mags to respond emphatically to last weekend’s 4-1 defeat with a comfortable victory at St. Mary’s.
The Sky Sports pundit thinks this is the perfect game to get our top-four hopes ‘back on track’, believing Newcastle and Alexander Isak will ‘slaughter’ the Saints in today’s 3pm kick-off.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Merson said: “Newcastle losing 4-1 at home to Bournemouth shows how difficult it is to make accurate predictions in the Premier League.
“Let’s be honest, even a loyal Bournemouth fan did not see that coming! But if you’re Newcastle, you can’t ask for a better game than this to get back on track.
“If Southampton had taken their chances, they could have gotten a result against Manchester United. But that shows how bad United are and not the other way around. I expect Newcastle to slaughter them. I just can’t see Alexander Isak not scoring against Southampton.
“Eddie Howe wouldn’t have been happy with the loss to Bournemouth. If you look at Liverpool or Arsenal, you wouldn’t expect them to lose 4-1 at home when they are in the middle of a dream run. Newcastle must change that about them and I expect them to bounce back in style.”
It was a total car crash of a performance against Howe’s former side last weekend and we’ll be desperate to respond immediately and get back to the ruthless form that saw us recently win nine games on the spin.
Start of a huge run
Every side has a blip and we’ll have to hope that battering at home to Bournemouth was an off day we won’t be repeating anytime soon – especially not against a Saints side without star wingers Tyler Dibling and Kamaldeen Sulemana.
We are still in both cups and are battling for Champions League football, so six points in our next two – at home to Southampton and Fulham – would be just what we need ahead of a cup semi-final at home to Arsenal and FA Cup trip to Birmingham before a run of potentially season-defining Premier League fixtures.
After our trip to St. Andrews, we have Manchester City away, a home clash with high-flying Nottingham Forest and a trip to Liverpool, showing what a vital month awaits for Eddie Howe in league and cup.
