Newcastle-Nottingham Forest is a match valid for the 19th day of the Premier League and is played on Tuesday at 1:30 pm: TV, formations, predictions.
The first fixture of the traditional Premier League Boxing Day is at St. James’ Park: at lunchtime, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest take on each other in the Black and White fort. For Eddie Howe’s team, it’s inevitably a golden opportunity to try to recover positions in the standings and re-enter the fight for fourth place.
The Magpies, in fact, have lost several points on the road this term, while also having to cope with their commitment to the Champions League, rediscovered after almost two decades. Newcastle’s adventure in the cup with the big ears, however, was short-lived: Howe and his men already exited after the group stage, finishing last in the so-called iron group – with them were also AC Milan, Psg and Borussia Dortmund – and also missing the “parachute” of relegation to the Europa League, following their defeat in the last round against Stefano Pioli’s Rossoneri. Newcastle a week ago was also eliminated from the League Cup: fatal penalty kicks in the Stamford Bridge showdown with Chelsea. Howe’s goal now is to recover as many elements as possible – the infirmary continues to be full – and make up ground against the top four.
St. James’ Park is a fort
The bulk of Newcastle’s points were scored at home: only Arsenal did better than the black-and-whites, who conceded only 4 goals in front of their home crowd.
Numbers that do not encourage a Nottingham Forest that, like last year, is struggling on the road: the Tricky Trees in nine games played away from home have scraped together only five points. Forest is not in the relegation zone only because the three newly promoted teams have done worse: the home defeat to Tottenham ten days ago was fatal for Steve Cooper, who was replaced by Portuguese Nuno Espirito Santo, fresh from his unlucky experience in Saudi Arabia at the helm of Al-Ittihad, the team of Benzema and Kanté.
The prediction
Nottingham Forest’s hopes of taking points away from St. James’ Park, where the Magpies have scored eight wins and one defeat so far, are very slim. Bianconeri favored in a match in which they should in any case cash in at least one goal, in light of the numerous absences especially in defense.
Newcastle-Nottingham Forest
likely lineups.
NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): Dubravka; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Livramento; Longstaff, Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton; Almiron, Isak, Gordon.
NOTTINGHAM FOREST (4-2-3-1): Turner; Williams, Niakhaté, Murillo, Toffolo; Mangala, Yates; Origi, Gibbs-White, Elanga; Wood.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
