Newcastle v Chelsea – Pre-match Poll

Sometimes the word crisis is banded around far too often. Sometimes concerns over a club’s run of form, the role of a club’s chairman and long term job prospects of a side’s manager are overblown and can be allayed by a single victory, but enough about the headlines surrounding Newcastle in the last few weeks.

This fixture has the potential to be fascinating. Newcastle are poor at home, Chelsea not good away, and both sides are without anything resembling a decent league performance in weeks.

Chelsea are clinging to top spot thanks to an ever diminishing goal difference advantage over their closest rivals. Short of a miracle on Saturday afternoon, they will be looking up at the summit of the league for the first time since the opening day of the season, and despite some small crumbs of comfort coming out of their Champions League win in mid-week it is becoming clear that their squad cannot cope with fighting on more than one front.

Newcastle look threadbare in defence. Chelsea look threadbare everywhere. Both teams are in need of three points, yet will probably have to settle for one apiece.

Prediction: 1-1

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