Newcastle United vs Chelsea Prediction: Back the visitors to progress in 90 minutes

The Carabao Cup may be one of the best routes to silverware for both Newcastle United and Chelsea. The two Premier League giants meet up on the Tyne for a Wednesday night fourth-round clash, live on Sky Sports+ from 19:45.

These two met in the Premier League on Sunday, with the west London side taking the spoils. Can they do so again? Neil Monnery previews and gives us his Newcastle United vs Chelsea Predictions…

A good way to get the feeling about the respective fanbases before previewing any match is to have perused their message boards. Heading into this one, it would be fair to say that the feelings are rather different depending on whether you support the team in blue or the one in black and white stripes.

If you support the team from the capital, you feel pretty good about life. You have arguably the best player in the Premier League wearing your shirt, who is in absolutely sublime form. Cole Palmer looks to be the player everyone expected Phil Foden to be but the one that Manchester City kept is struggling to fully establish himself, whilst the one who departed for first team action is thriving.

Nicolas Jackson wasn’t exactly a joke figure last season, scoring 17 times in 44 appearances but the 23-year-old striker has looked far more potent this time around, having already found the back of the net six times in just 10 outings. Form like that takes you from being a solid Premier League striker to one that gives the opposition genuine fear.

For Newcastle United though, the support for Eddie Howe is starting to seriously erode. A few months ago, fans were excited about what the summer would bring but had concerns that their manager would be poached by the national team.

It would be fair to say that the transfer window was an unmitigated disaster for the Geordies. With no first team starters coming in to improve their best XI, this meant that Jacob Murphy and Miguel Almiron were still the top choices to man the right-wing berth.

Marc Guehi was heavily linked to provide a partner for Fabian Schar in the absence of the injured Sven Botman, yet the deal never got close and the much needed infuse of fresh players to the squad was once again lacking.

What it has meant is that the good will the manager had garnered for saving them from relegation and getting into the Champions League has been undermined.

Fans want and expect better. This means that when the team is not performing, the ire usually falls on whoever is in charge of the first team. That alas is just the way it is and now there is a significant portion of the fanbase that wish England had come in for Howe.

This brings us on to Wednesday’s match. It feels far more important to the home fans than it will to those making their way up the East Coast mainline or via the A1.

Defeat could well make those noises of discontent even louder for Howe and his team. The pressure will be on to score goals and keep a clean sheet, something that I don’t think many truly expect them to do here.

Chelsea aren’t playing with house money but they look to be ever-improving and have a giant squad, so they can rest and rotate players without seeing much of a drop-off in performance. They also have the Conference League, another avenue to lift a trophy available to them, so even if they did fall at St James’ Park, it is unlikely to knock-off the feel-good factor around the Stamford Bridge club.

Team News:

This section will be heavily skewed towards the home side, mainly because the visitors have no significant injury concerns. Head coach Enzo Maresca will have a fully-fit squad to choose from for the game, bar any late setbacks in training.

One of those happened for Newcastle United on Saturday, which left them without Anthony Gordon for the defeat at Chelsea on Sunday. Just days after signing a new contract, the England international hurt his groin and is a big doubt for Wednesday’s match.

At the back, the likes of Jamaal Lascelles and the aforementioned Botman are long-term absentees, with Kieran Trippier also unavailable. Callum Wilson still hasn’t played a minute of first-team football this season but Lewis Miley could get some minutes.

The decision over whether young Will Osula starts rather than Alexander Isak up top will indicate just how important Howe thinks this game is.

Newcastle United vs Chelsea Odds

*Click above to go to Betfred's Newcastle vs Chelsea Betting Market for all our latest prices and odds on the Carabao Cup match.

I fully expected to open up the match market on Betfred to see that Chelsea were the betting favourites. The traders though think this is too close to call and have priced up either side to win in the 90 at odds of 8/5. The game going to penalties having ended in a draw is a 5/2 shot.

When we convert those betting prices into implied odds, we have it as a 29% chance this game goes to spot kicks and a 39% chance either side wins it in normal time.

Both Teams to Score is too short at 1/2 as the home side have found it hard to find the back of the net.

Isak tops the anytime goalscorer market at 6/4 with Palmer, Jackson and Christopher Nkunku all shorter than 2/1.

*You can check out all of the Football Odds we offer over at betfred.com

Chelsea to win @ 8/5

Let’s start the opening tip with the straight-up match result. The pressure is on at Newcastle, a depleted squad is struggling for any cohesion either defensively or going forward. The midfield trio of Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali would be awesome on Football Manager, yet in real life, they’ve yet to win this season with these three all starting.

The home side started the season playing pretty poorly but finding ways to win. Since then, the performances have improved but the results have escaped them. Finding a way to get some creativity into the middle of the park is paramount as they just aren’t able to open up teams at the moment.

Chelsea’s recent form has been excellent, with four wins from their previous six. The only serious blot on their résumé is the 2-1 defeat at Anfield and we shouldn’t really hold that one against them. Even if Maresca does rotate, I like the away side to win.

If you really want to up the ante, take the 17/2 on offer for the 1-2 Correct Score.