Welcome to the Crystal Palace v Newcastle United preview.

Newcastle United travel to the big smoke this Sunday, looking to draw a line under two deeply disappointing defeats that have seen them slip down the league and abruptly end the honeymoon period enjoyed by Martin Jaissle earlier on in the season.

The clocks going back will hopefully give United the chance to press reset and get the season back on track with a third win in London this season, having put both Tottenham and Millwall to the sword already.

Crystal Palace will be hoping to enjoy home comforts after three straight away games (two of them in Europe) has failed to result in a single win for the Eagles.

Form

The last six league matches have seen Newcastle win two, draw one and lose three. A fine away win against Tottenham was followed up by a 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth before a drubbing at Leeds and a win over Hull. Unfortunately this was then followed up with two disappointing defeats in succession to leave the Toon languishing in fourteenth place having endured three losses in our past four games. We’ve scored eight goals in our last six matches and conceded twelve. A win on Sunday could see us in the top six should other results go our way.

Crystal Palace have also won two, drawn one and lost three of their past six league matches. Defeats have come against Man City, Ipswich and Brighton, whilst they’ve drawn with Leeds and beaten Fulham and Nottingham Forest. They’ve scored nine goals in these six games and conceded fifteen. Palace find themselves sixteenth in the league but a win would see them climb above the Toon and ease into the top half of the table.

Last time out in the Premier League

Newcastle United hosted Aston Villa on Saturday evening and went down to a deeply disappointing 1-0 defeat. The Toon spent most of the match on the front foot but created very few clear-cut chances. The only goal of the game came at the end of the first half when NUFC’s defenders played statues to allow a free header to be buried at the Gallowgate End.

The Toon huffed and puffed throughout the second half but never really convinced any of us that an equaliser was on the cards. Our main highlight came when Sven Botman attempted to reprise his magnificent effort away at Coventry with a strike from outside of the box that sadly was only able to draw a fine save from the ‘keeper. The most frustrating moment happened when a superb run from Wissa gave him the perfect opportunity to roll in Harvey Barnes, unfortunately our number nine selfishly decided to shoot and his effort sailed harmlessly wide of the post as the match slipped away from United. An equaliser would really have put the cat amongst the pigeons but we were instead left to lament what might have been.

Crystal Palace travelled to Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend for a match that couldn’t really have gone any worse for them. Things got off to a terrible start when conceding an own goal after just four minutes and went from bad to worse when conceding from the halfway line just a few minutes later. Further scoring for Brighton meant that Palace found themselves three goals down with just ten minutes on the clock. With thoughts of a potential cricket score, The Eagles must have been relieved to escape with a 5-0 defeat on a day best forgotten for anyone in claret and blue. They did fare rather better in Europe on Thursday night when travelling to Turkey and securing an impressive 2-2 against Besiktas.

Stat attack!

Newcastle haven’t won in their last five visits to Selhurst Park.
The Toon have won five Premier League matches away at Crystal Palace.
NUFC’s last win away at Palace came in 2020, our only victory in the past eleven visits.

Memorable match

December 2004 saw Graeme Souness under immense pressure having taken over from Sir Bobby Robson just a few months earlier. Souness had got off to an impressive start but the wheels were starting to fall off with United experiencing just one win in his past six league matches.

Thankfully the Magpies looked back to their attacking best when creating a number of chances against a Palace side who had only won three times all season. Despite the fact Robert and Bellamy were both taking the game to the opposition, it was The Eagles who had the best chance of the first half when forcing a superb one-handed save from Shay Given.

The second half saw further improvement from the Toon and the breakthrough was made with just eleven minutes to go when Patrick Kluivert showed incredible skill to backheel a chance past the ‘keeper and put United a goal to the good. The points were then wrapped up by Craig Bellamy two minutes from time when he lashed the ball into the roof of the net to send the away fans into raptures. Unfortunately this was to be one of Bellamy’s last goals for the club due a very public falling out with Graeme Souness that the manager never truly recovered from. Crystal Palace 0-2 Newcastle.

Played for both

Darren Ambrose was signed by Sir Bobby Robson from Ipswich Town in 2003. He scored a few important goals for the Toon including a fine equaliser against Southampton in May 2004 that ensured qualification for the UEFA Cup. He also scored a fantastic equaliser away to Bolton in a 2-1 defeat at the Reebok under Graeme Souness. It’s safe to say Toon fans never really saw the best of him despite his undoubted potential. He played for Charlton and then Ipswich before signing for Crystal Palace in 2009. He’s fondly remembered by Eagles fans having scored a crucial goal in a relegation battle against Sheffield Wednesday as well as the winning goal at Old Trafford in a League Cup quarter-final.

Dwight Gayle spent three seasons at Crystal Palace and is remembered for a late brace in a 3-3 draw at home to Liverpool when Palace came back from 3-0 down to gain a point against the title-chasing reds. He signed for Newcastle in 2016 and helped us gain promotion back to the Premier League with a number of important goals including a hat-trick in an astonishing 4-3 win over Norwich and a brace in a 2-0 victory away at Leeds.

Loic Remy was on loan at the Toon for one season having signed for Joe Kinnear in 2013. My favourite memory of his time on Tyneside was being in the away end at Tottenham when he scored the only goal in a match where Tim Krul made a million saves. He played on loan at Palace in 2016 but failed to find the net in a handful of league appearances.

Managers

Matthias Jaissle after a 1-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa: “It was a game where we were dominating. Overall I thought I was seeing a team giving a response. We had many situations where you saw that we were going to win that game and then we conceded a goal. We also need to be honest. We were shaky until half-time but then after that we showed a good response. The second forty-five minutes were again really aggressive. We won the important duels. Unfortunately we were just not smart enough in our decision making in the final third so that is something we need to improve. There were many occasions where we didn’t find the right pass. Sometimes not the right timing. These things need to be combined pretty soon to be more efficient.”

Pierre Sage after a 5-0 drubbing from Brighton: “It’s my fault because I am the coach, I gave the motivation. I prepare the situations. We played so bad it’s my fault. It’s difficult to summarise because there are a lot of negative points. We started really bad. It’s completely not normal to concede three goals in this kind of game after nine minutes. I prepare the team, that is why I am responsible for what’s happened on the pitch. I have a lot of work to do because I have to change this kind of thing.”

Charity

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.

Prediction

Everyone associated with Newcastle United will be desperately disappointed if we don’t collect three points from this one. Early season promise has been rapidly disintegrating due to three really poor defeats in a four match period. An elongated international break also hasn’t helped things with our victory over Hull feeling like it happened a long time ago. I think this could be a bit of a slog to be honest with the two teams cancelling each other out for large periods of the match.

Despite this, two late goals will secure a much-needed victory that will be celebrated long into the night. Crystal Palace 0-2 Newcastle.