Newcastle v Southampton: Toon to smash Saints

Newcastle have looked a different team in the weeks since an influx of French stars traded their homeland for Tyneside and they’ll continue this improvement with a convincing win over Southampton.

Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival at St Mary’s hasn’t brought about the dramatic collapse that the Saints chairman’s inexplicable axing Nigel Adkins warranted, quite the opposite in fact, but victory at St James’ is beyond them, despite being priced at a not-so-long 5/2.

The Toon offer brilliant value to punters at 11/10. After sending Chelsea home pointless before putting in a resilient display at high-flying Tottenham, not to mention qualifying for the Europa League last-16 with an unlikely win in Kharkiv, they must fancy their chances of avenging the 2-0 defeat suffered on the south coast in the corresponding fixture.

This will be the Saints first trip to the Toon since 2006; it’s a place where they don’t typically do well. Newcastle have won four straight league meetings between the pair, with an FA Cup clash sandwiched in, when hosting their stripy adversaries.

Their form on the road, however, is in decent enough knick for their fans not to expect this unwanted streak to halt. Since starting the season in woeful style away from home, only one defeat (at Old Trafford) has been suffered in their last six.

A cause for concern has to be the fact that only one clean sheet has been managed from their entire campaign’s worth of away trips. With Newcastle back in amongst the goals – six in their last three games – a punt on a home with over 2.5 goals scored has to appeal; it pays out at 21/10.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date