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Tyneside stages a match with two teams heading in opposite directions - indeed they have passed one another like ships in the night recently in the Premier League standings.
Everton are obviously talk of the town after holding neighbours Liverpool to a draw at Anfield on Sunday and this represents another big showdown for Sam Allardyce as he takes his new team to one of his former haunts.
He did not last a year at St James’ Park and I don’t doubt for a moment he will have been scheming furiously to get one over Toon with all the hype over the Merseyside derby finished for the time being.
His side obviously put a lot of effort and more importantly, emotion, into the latter fixture so it will be down to Allardyce to pick them up once again in a bid to keep his unbeaten start at Goodison Park going with the Toffees in the region of 23/10 to collect all three points.
Big Sam’s opposite number Rafa Benitez can’t catch a break currently and his side have managed to gain just one point from their last seven games after they were sunk by an unfortunate last-gasp own goal against Leicester.
There are goals in the team with Dwight Gayle looking sharp on a regular basis having set up one and scored another against the Foxes but getting caught at the back remains a serious issue until calming influence and club captain Jamaal Lascelles gets back to take a grip of the situation.
There will be worse odds-on chances around than both teams to score but I will go for a stalemate at a bigger price with a goal each for those who like a punt on the correct score.
Prediction: Newcastle 1-1 Everton (DJ) -
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St Mary’s could be the place for entertainment with two teams in good nick, playing some decent football and a nice additional edge to proceedings as Claude Puel makes his return to the south coast.
Getting to a major cup final and finishing eighth in the Premier League was not enough for some as the Saints severed ties with the Frenchman, worried his brand of relatively uninspiring football was going to be a continual turn-off for the supporters.
Puel was probably only trying to play to their strengths and could not afford to get into any wild shootouts but having Riyad Mahrez, Demarai Gray and Jamie Vardy at your disposal encourages a more open, attacking approach with first-named pair on the scoresheet once again in the 3-2 success at Newcastle.
One of the reasons why Puel struggled for goals at Southampton was down to a lack of game-time for striker Charlie Austin and he has certainly made a big impact for Mauricio Pellegrino over the last few weeks.
He has scored four in his last three starts and is thriving on both excellent service from down the flanks and quality through the middle provided by Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse. He heads the betting at 15/8 to add another at some stage in proceedings.
The Saints were very good value for their point at home to Arsenal over the weekend after Arsene Wenger threw virtually his whole armoury available at the situation to come up with a late leveller via Olivier Giroud.
There is an abundance of pace in both sides here and the necessary firepower to finish it off as well so goals are very much on the agenda with over 3.5 in total a tempting bet at almost 3/1.
Prediction: Southampton 2-2 Leicester (DJ) - Sky Bet odds: 14/1
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A certain analyst and decent judge has labelled Manchester City "the best team in world" so they should have little problem at 2/9 beating an outfit that might not even be the best side in Wales.
It is back down to earth again for Pep Guardiola’s superstars after putting moody Jose Mourinho and Manchester United in their place on Sunday and it is a case now of keeping the foot to the floor having opened up such a huge gap at the top of the table over some floundering rivals.
Results over the weekend could not have gone a great deal better for those involved at the Etihad Stadium with only a distant Tottenham in the top six managing three points and City may not need many points at this rate to have the title sewn up once European hostilities reconvene in mid-February.
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There will be no hiding place anywhere on Merseyside for Jurgen Klopp if Liverpool don’t pick up three points in convincing fashion here but the damage has already been done regardless of the outcome.
The German’s bizarre decision to bench Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino (Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum AWOL too) for the derby backfired in embarrassing fashion so while Dejan Lovren will be pilloried for the penalty he gave away, the fact they are now 16 points behind Manchester City rests squarely at the feet of Klopp.
It is a busy time for all the top clubs, but resting players for a title push this season that now has no hope of materialising? Misjudged at best and closer to reckless with the club’s fortunes.
What the response will be at Anfield should make for fascinating viewing – I couldn’t hazard a guess as to who is going on the team sheet and whether Klopp will revert to a full-strength outfit after the horse has already bolted.
The whole situation makes this an extremely tricky fixture to call although if West Brom turn up in similar form to their turgid effort at Swansea then Klopp could stick out his third XI and win comfortably.
Manager Alan Pardew keeps extolling the virtues of his new team’s work-rate and dedication in post-match interviews but he must be looking at a different game to me – they were awful for the most part against Crystal Palace and at the Liberty Stadium.
They lack quality and confidence from their front players and their plight was underlined on Saturday as a counter-attack in which they completely outnumbered the hosts saw Hal Robson-Kanu unable to do anything more than hoof the ball behind the net for a goal-kick.
Pardew will set out to annoy and irritate Liverpool with a plan to play on the fact there is not a great deal of patience currently amongst the home fans.
Klopp’s team selection and whether he will swallow his pride is obviously key but I can’t even begin to consider what might happen if the German and his team blunder once more so will tentatively go for this one being a routine home triumph against a vastly inferior rival.
Prediction: Liverpool 2-0 West Brom (DJ) -
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There will be a well-spouted theory here that a home game against Bournemouth is exactly what the doctor ordered for United after their 100 per cent home record was blown out of the water by Manchester City.
With it went their title hopes too, in all likelihood, and while Jose Mourinho takes the flak over that, in particular a somewhat defensive approach, life must go on for the team.
My own view is that the current United side is somewhat inferior to City’s and that Mourinho’s tactics were understandable. In many ways they almost worked – could he really be responsible for two defensive howlers from Romelu Lukaku? Had those set-plays been defended properly, United could well have taken something out of the game. Indeed they would have done any way had it not been for a superb double save from Ederson late on.
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I found Spurs hard to call at the weekend, suggesting their Wembley struggles might halt their run of walloping Stoke. That turned out to be far from the case.
Like West Ham, perhaps that 5-1 win is the result Spurs needed to shrug off a recent malaise which has seen them win just two of their last seven in the Premier League.
They were much better against the Potters when they became the first top-flight side ever to beat the same team by four or more goals on four successive occasions.
Brighton have been pretty toothless on the road, being shutout in five of their eight games thus far, while they have scored just one goal in their last four matches at any venue.
Spurs did concede late in Saturday’s game to stretch their league run without a clean sheet to five. Davinson Sanchez remains suspended and with Toby Alderweireld’s hamstring now due to keep him out until February, I’m not convinced enough to be backing a home win to nil at odds-on.
One aspect I did get correct last week was my assessment of Heung-min Son’s goalscoring form – he duly added another and now has six in his last nine starts.
He’s actually a bigger price in the any time market than he was against Stoke and while Albion’s defence is statistically much tighter than Stoke’s (21 conceded to 35), I still think that 6/4 may have some juice in it.
Prediction: Spurs 2-0 Brighton (AS) -
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1pt over 3.5 goals in Southampton v Leicester at 11/4
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Posted at 1620 GMT on 12/12/17.