Paul Merson has said that Newcastle were “poor” against Arsenal on Monday but thinks they will still have enough to secure another three points against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
A win would leave them on 38 points and on the brink of Premier League survival with five more games to go.
In his regular Sky Sports column Merson wrote: “Newcastle had a load of fans come down to Arsenal on Monday and you were thinking ‘why don’t you have a go?’. I thought it was poor. They are better than that and have the ammunition to hurt teams.
“But I am disappointed with Palace. Out of all the teams at the bottom they are the disappointment because they should not be where they are.
“How do you go to Manchester City and win 3-2, when nobody beats City at home, and then be where you are in the league and go to Tottenham and get rinsed in midweek? It wasn’t even really a game.”
Merson thinks the final score will be 2-1 to the home side at St James’ Park.
OPINION
Newcastle are seven points ahead of Cardiff in the drop zone and although Rafa Benitez won’t rest until his side is mathametically safe, it looks like he’s going to steer Newcastle away from danger again this season. A win against Crystal Palace will definitely help, but this game could come down to which Palace turn up. Roy Hodgson’s side have won three of the last six but they lost the other three and they looked terrible against Tottenham. Perhaps the pressure of playing at the new Spurs stadium for the first time got to them. If the Palace side that beat Man City 3-2 turn up then Newcastle could be in trouble, but we fancy Benitez’s side to get something out of the game tomorrow. Salomon Rondon is finally showing the sort of form that he’s capable of and new signing Miguel Almiron is looking really impressive. He hasn’t scored his first Newcastle goal yet but we fancy him to break his duck on Saturday.