Newcastle face local rivals Sunderland at St James’ Park, which is going to be one of the most important Tyne-Wear derbies in history.
Newcastle failed to get three points in the new manager’s first game in charge as they were defeated 1-0 by Premier League leaders Leicester City. Despite the defeat, there were encouraging signs of improvement, given Rafa Benitez only worked with his new team for three days.
Newcastle, Sunderland and Norwich are battling to keep their premier league status and only one place is available. Newcastle are only one point behind Sunderland and Norwich and a win on Sunday could take Newcastle out of the relegation zone depending on how Norwich get on.
As the big derby approaches, we have decided to predict the starting line-up, because Newcastle are clearly struggling to score goals, we are predicting Rafa will go with the old-fashioned 4-4-2 formation in an attempt to get three points.
