Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson believes that Newcastle United and Tottenham will hold each other to a draw when the two sides meet a St James’ Park on Saturday.
Merson has predicted that the game will end goalless after both clubs suffered underwhelming transfer windows and has claimed that Rafa Benitez will set up his side to be hard to beat.
He also believes that the World Cup will be still having an impact on some of the Tottenham players going into the game.
“This is a tough one. This was an early game last year, and Spurs got a couple of late goals, but I feel they’ll find it hard due to the World Cup,” he said on the Sky Sports website.
“Spurs just haven’t got their players back. Rafa Benitez will make them hard to beat. Spurs won’t have the goals early on so Newcastle will hold on this year. I’m going for a goalless draw.”
OPINION
Merson’s right, this is going to he a hard one to call. Both sets of fans have been furious with how their summer transfer windows have panned out. Tottenham are the only Premier League club to have failed to sign a single player while Newcastle fans have been raging at how Mike Ashley has failed to back Benitez in the market. Putting aside their efforts in the transfer window, this game should be a tightly contested affair. Tottenham won both games last season without the Magpies being able to score a single goal. It probably would have been goalless when they met at St James’ Park if Jonjo Shelvey did not get himself needlessly sent off as well. If the Magpies can execute their game plan, they could grab themselves a shock win against a squad of players that has not played together in a long time due to the World Cup.