The second round of 2019/20 Premier League fixtures begin on Saturday and we have an intriguing match at Carrow Road.
Norwich City entertain Newcastle United in a game both teams will be hoping to win. Neither team has a point yet this season, so getting off the mark in this one is very important.
Norwich City won the Championship last season, finishing the season on 94 points. They lost just six games throughout the whole campaign but have already lost a match in the Premier League this season, going down 4-1 at Liverpool last Friday night.
It was always going to be a big task for a newly promoted team to travel to the European champions and the Premier League runners-up from last season. Norwich struggled to contain Liverpool and despite creating some decent goal scoring opportunities themselves, they were 4-0 down at half-time.
That resulted in a change in tactics by Daniel Farke in the second half and Norwich looked much more comfortable dealing with Liverpool’s attacks. They also scored a goal themselves and the second half display will be a big boost going into this match.
Trends show Norwich City are undefeated in their last ten home competitive games, all of which were in the Championship. They won eight and were held in two, managing to score 2 more goals in nine of those matches but keeping just three clean sheets.
Newcastle United started the new Premier League season at home against Arsenal and struggled to create good chances to score goals. The Magpies were looking good at the back but one lapse in concentration was punished by Arsenal and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took the chance well to hand the Gunners a 1-0 win.
The appointment of Steve Bruce was met with mixed reactions at St James’ Park and the manager will be under early pressure if his team fail to get something from this match.
However, away form is poor and Newcastle United have won only two of their last eleven away games. That being said, they are undefeated in their last three, beating Leicester City and Fulham and picking up a point at Brighton and Hove Albion in a 1-1 draw.
Looking ahead to the team news and Norwich City have doubts over the fitness of several players including Timm Klose, Alexander Tettey, Louis Thompson, Christoph Zimmermann and Carlton John Morris.
Newcastle United will travel without Florian Lejeune who is not expected to return until the end of August. Jonjo Shelvey, Christian Atsu and DeAndre Yedlin are doubtful but all three should be available.
This is a massive game for both teams who will want to get some points on the board. In what should be a closely fought match, we could see under 2.5 goals as Newcastle aim to keep things tight and return to St James’ Park with a point for their efforts.