Premiership Newcastle vs. Aston Villa
Venue: St James’ Park
Date: Monday, 3 November
Kick-off: 2000 GMT
Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa can go up to third place in the Premiership if they beat Newcastle United away on Monday night. Villa have lost only two of 10 league fixtures - and one of those was to Chelsea.
The Villans have won their last two league games and travel to St James’ Park looking to notch up their third successive victory.
On the other hand, Joe Kinnear’s side can get out of the relegation zone if they get full points tomorrow and the Magpies will be full of confidence after having tasted victory last time out against West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday.
TEAM NEWS
Newcastle captain Michael Owen is poised to return to action in Monday’s Barclays Premier League match against Aston Villa.
Owen and vice-captain Nicky Butt are both back in contention to feature for Joe Kinnear’s side at St James’ Park. Striker Owen has missed the last three games with groin trouble, while midfielder Butt, who has had an ankle problem, sat out Tuesday’s victory over West Brom.
Villa have a doubt over midfielder Stiliyan Petrov for Monday night’s trip north.
The Bulgaria international picked up a hamstring injury during Wednesday’s 3-2 win against Blackburn and will be given a late fitness test with Steve Sidwell on stand-by to replace him.
Sidwell has yet to start a Barclays Premier League game for Villa having been troubled by injury since his 5million summer switch from Chelsea.
Manager Martin O’Neill must also decide whether to recall striker John Carew to the starting line-up. The Norway international has started the last two games on the bench after missing the UEFA Cup tie against Ajax through illness.
NEWCASTLE: Given, Beye, Enrique, Taylor, Coloccini, Butt, Barton, Guthrie, Duff, Gutierrez, Ameobi, Owen, Martins, Harper, Bassong, Cacapa, Edgar, Geremi, Xisco.
ASTON VILLA: Friedel, L Young, Laursen, Knight, Davies, Cuellar, Shorey, Milner, Routledge, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Barry, A Young, Carew, Agbonlahor, Harewood, Gardner, Salifou, Osbourne, Guzan.
CLUB STATS
NEWCASTLE
Going into the weekend: 17th 9 points
1. Won one, drawn two and lost one of their four Premier League matches under Joe Kinnear.
2. Pocketed just five points from a last available 24.
4. The 2-1 win over West Brom last time out was the first match in 10 in all competitions that they had not conceded at least two goals.
5. Scored in all but one of their 10 league outings this season.
ASTON VILLA
Going into the weekend: 4th 20 points
1. Looking to add to their current all-time total of 5,000 league points.
2. Won the last two against Wigan (a) and Blackburn (h), scoring a total of seven goals in the process.
3. Won three of their last four away Premier League matches.
4. Lost only one of their last nine Premier League visits to the North-East. That reverse was 3-1 to Newcastle on 31 January 2007, since when they have alternated between win and draw in their subsequent four top-flight trips to the region.
5. This match precedes the Uefa Cup trip to Slavia Prague next Thursday.
BETTING OPTIONS
If you bet on Aston Villa to win, the Villans are backed at 2.5 in the Match Odds.
Also, betting on Villa/Villa is backed at at 4.3 in the Half-Time/Full-Time market.
The hosts are 3.15 and The Draw is 3.5.
If you bet on Over 3.5 goals, you will get odds around 3.2 to win your bet.
If you choose to bet on Correct Score, 3-1 at 24.0 and 3-2 at 30.0 to the Villiains seem to be some quite tempting odds for a regular gambler.
If your betting option strongly favors the Magpies, you might bet on 3.15 for the Mags to win, or the 7.8 about Draw/Newcastle in the Half-Time/Full-Time sections as being too good to miss out.
If I had to place a bet on this game, I would definitely bet on Villa to win tonight’s game.
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