It’s usually a cracker, so let’s see if we can make some money out of it too.
Newcastle v Liverpool is one of those games (Spurs v Manchester United is another) that you will always go out of your way to watch even if you don’t support either team.
Thanks to some belting encounters in the past, the meeting of the Magpies and the Reds is one you always sit down to watch thinking ‘this could be another 4-3’. It usually isn’t but football is almost as much about the anticipation as it is about the game, and this clash is one we all look forward to.
That said, we suspect some Newcastle fans aren’t looking forward to the return of Brendan Rodgers’s side. Last season, the Reds thumped Newcastle 6-0 at St James’ Park and that April defeat put huge pressure on the then relegation threatened home side.
It was Liverpool’s first game without Luis Suarez, who had a little nibble on Branislav Ivanovic the previous week, but they still rattled in half a dozen goals. Today, the Reds return, playing even better and with the Uruguayan back on the team and in form.
So, what can we expect to see? Well we reckon goals for one. This fixture hasn’t returned a 0-0 since 1974, but if you fancy that trend being broken, it is 11/1 for a 0-0.
But we really do expect goals, and quite a few. A 4-3 to Liverpool, for old time’s sake, is priced at 100/1, while a repeat of the 6-0 score we saw last year is 175/1.
More realistically, we quite fancy the over 3.5 goals market at 7/4 and a certain Mr Suarez at 7/2 for first goalscorer looks very generous too. An even better bet is Suarez to have the most shots in the game at 2/1. Yes Loic Remy likes a shot, but nobody has more pops at goal than the Liverpool striker.
As for Newcastle, they have only won five Premier League games at home in the calendar year of 2013 to date. And the last two of those were to Fulham. A Liverpool win, at 17/20, looks pretty decent to us, especially if you double it up with Suarez to score at any time, a tasty 6/4.
