When, back in June, the fixture computer, spewed out the fixtures for the 2018 / 2019 Premier League season, it didn’t give Newcastle the best of starts to the season.
Four of our first five Premier League games are fixtures against four of the so-called big-six Premier League clubs.
Our opening fixture saw us lose against Tottenham, and after our fixture this weekend, away to Cardiff City, we face testing fixtures against Chelsea (h), Manchester City (a) and Arsenal (h), three fixtures we’d, in my opinion, do well to get more than four points from, if I were to be brutally frank.
Which makes the trip to South Wales this Saturday, to take on Neil Warnock’s Cardiff City a crucial fixture.
It is one we cannot afford to lose and one, more importantly, we need to win.
A failure to do so and you can visualise it already, would see the media hang those dark clouds over St James Park very early in the season.
But, what do the statistics tell us to expect from this fixture?
Is it all doom and gloom or is there a light shining brightly waiting to beckon us to the Cardiff City Stadium?
Well, firstly, we’d like to point out that Rafael Benitez has never, in five games against sides managed by Neil Warnock lost. Those five games have heralded four wins and a draw, hopefully, that record will continue.
Continuing, we find that the last 10 league games between the two sides have resulted in 10 Newcastle wins, this is Newcastle’s best run against any opponent, making it 11 wins on the bounce would certainly be a confidence booster.
The last time Cardiff City beat Newcastle United was in a second division fixture, at Ninian Park, back in 1981, whilst their last top-flight league win against Newcastle was back in 1961.
So, it would see fortunes does favour Newcastle this Saturday.
However, how do you see this game ending?
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