Saturday 21 March 2015 14:50, UK
John Carver's Newcastle host Arsenal at St James' Park on Saturday aiming to avoid a third straight defeat.
The Magpies have lost three of their last four games, scoring just once in that time and have a wretched recent record against the Gunners.
Arsenal have come out on top in each of the sides' last six meetings, including a 4-1 win at the Emirates earlier in the season, and are in excellent form have won their last five games.
They will, however, have to put the disappointment of a Champions League exit in Monaco behind them as they look to secure their qualification for next year’s tournament.
Arsene Wenger and his charges may even be looking beyond that as they sit just a point behind second-placed Manchester City. Certainly a top-two finish is well within their grasp with nine games to play.
Team news
Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini begins his three-match ban following his red card at Everton last weekend and Papiss Cisse's suspension for spitting continues.
In addition, head coach John Carver will have to contend with a crippling injury list which will deprive him of the services of defenders Steven Taylor (Achilles), Paul Dummett and Massadio Haidara (both knee), and midfielders Cheick Tiote (also knee), Mehdi Abeid (thigh), Siem de Jong (collapsed lung) and Rolando Aarons (thigh).
Tomas Rosicky could return to the Arsenal squad but Mikel Arteta (ankle), Mathieu Debuchy (shoulder), Jack Wilshere (ankle) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (hamstring) are still out.
Opta facts
Arsenal are unbeaten in the last eight Barclays Premier League games against Newcastle, winning the last six in a row.
The Gunners are the only team ever to not win a Premier League game after being 4-0 up at half-time, when they drew 4-4 with Newcastle at St James Park in February 2011.
Newcastle have failed to score in their last three Premier League home matches against the Gunners.
Olivier Giroud has netted six goals in five Premier League appearances against the Magpies.
In Arsenal’s last six Premier League away matches, the winning side has netted exactly two goals.
Alexis Sanchez has scored the first goal of the game more often than any other Premier League player this season.
Merson's prediction
This is Arsenal all over at the moment; they will win their last nine league games of the season and then there will be huge optimism around the club that they can go and win next season’s Premier League. Yes they have been in impressive form of late, but they still lost that one crucial game at home to what was a poor Monaco side in the Champions League.
Meanwhile, Newcastle will be without their captain Fabricio Coloccini through suspension, and I think he will be a huge miss and even though they will be playing in front of 50,000 fans at St James’, Arsenal have a great record there and I expect an easy win for Arsene Wenger’s side.
PAUL PREDICTS: 0-3
Betting
Arsenal are odds-on shots with Sky Bet to bounce back from their Champions League disappointment with victory over Newcastle. The Gunners have failed to concede in each of their last three visits to Tyneside and are 2/1 to extend that sequence with a win to nil. Olivier Giroud scored twice in the corresponding fixture and is 5/1 to net another brace. Arsenal trail champions Manchester City by a point after last week's win over West Ham and are now 100/30 to secure runners-up spot.
