Newcastle – Brighton

Newcastle United hosts Brighton & Hove Albion in a game from the 21th round of the English Premier League.

It’s a difficult season for Rafael Benitez’ Newcastle. The Magpies are 15th in the Premier League with 18 points, but they are on just one point above the relegation zone. In their last five games Newcastle won once and suffered four defeats, which is proving that they are facing some serious difficulties since they returned to the Premier League.

Before the start of the season Rafael Benitez was talking about a Top 10 finish in the league, but now it’s a totally different reality of Newcastle. The team was dominating in the Championship, but doing the same in the Premier League is a totally different thing. They see it now.

Meanwhile Brighton & Hove Albion are 12th in the league standings with 21 points won. They have a record of 5 wins, 6 draws and 9 defeats. In their last match Brighton & Hove suffered a defeat against Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge, which was fairly expected.

Let’s have a look at the team news before the match in Newcastle.

Newcastle can’t use the injured Jesus Gamez and Aleksandar Mitrovic, while Robert Elliot and Florian Lejeune are doubtful for the match. Meanwhile Emmanuel Riviere is once again fit and ready to return to action.

Brighton & Hove Albion have a full squad for this game, which is great news for them. Let’s see if they can take advantage of this.

The difference between these two teams in the Premier League standings is just 3 points, so we can say that they are on a pretty much similar level. Newcastle have the home ground advantage here, but in same time we shall not forget that the Magpies are very shaky latley. It shall be an interesting match.