Home comfort deciding factor yet again?
Tottenham Hotspur travel to Newcastle upon Tyne on Wednesday evening in pursuit of European qualification whilst Newcastle find themselves in no man's land and nothing left to play for.
Newcastle
The Magpies achieved exactly what they wanted under Steve Bruce, survival, which obviously means a definitive contract for next years edition of the Premier League. The fact that Newcastle are in the midst of a takeover worth a ridiculous amount of money made it all the more important meaning everyone in the organisation could breathe a sigh of relief.
Comfortable at home
Steve Bruce and co. have had a decent season racking up the sort of respectable stats of 11 wins, 10 draws and 14 defeats. However, the difference between their home and away form is absolutely massive. They are unbeaten in their last 5 at St. James' Park and have the overall home stats of 6 wins, 8 draws and 3 defeats whilst their away stats consist of the less flattering 5 wins, 2 draws and whopping 11 defeats.
Newcastle are coming off the back of 2 straight defeats against Manchester City (5-0) as well as Watford (2-1) but both of those games were away and as mentioned above, they are a whole different beast when playing at home regardless if the stadium is full of fans or not.
Tottenham
The Lilywhites will be brimming with confidence after their North London Derby triumph over Arsenal which saw them leapfrog the Gunners at 8th. They are now unbeaten in 3 games (2 wins and a draw) and have put themselves within striking distance of the European qualifying spots which was unthinkable back in December, hats off to Mourinho.
Grosly underperforming
Spurs have the stats of 14 wins, 10 draws and 11 defeats which is definitely not worthy of a team that played last years Champions League final and have aspirations of cementing themselves as a top 4 Premier League team.
Problems on the road
The problem with Tottenham is, like many other teams, their away form where they sport the measly stats of 3 wins, 7 draws and 7 defeats which is problematic at a minimum given that they are facing such a strong home side in Newcastle.
Perfect examples that illustrate Tottenham's away woes are their most recent away games against Sheffield United (3-1 defeat) and Bournemouth (0-0) where they struggled severely and should not have travelled home with a single point.
Betting tip
Newcastle are, despite having nothing to play for, very hard to play against when at home whilst Tottenham have huge issues on the road which is why i will be backing Newcastle to win or draw at the fantastic odds of 2.00 with Betway.
