Liverpool travel to Newcastle United in the Premier League this weekend and Paul Merson has given his result prediction
Paul Merson predicts that Eddie Howe’s team will punish Liverpool for their recent tendency of starting games slowly by defeating them at St. James’ Park this weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, Liverpool will play their third Premier League game of the year against the Magpies in what will certainly be their hardest test yet.
After putting up a tenacious performance in their season-opening match against Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp’s team has earned four points. They returned to Merseyside with a hard-earned point. Six days later, though, they turned things around against Bournemouth to win 3-1 thanks to goals from Luis Diaz, Mohamed Salah, and Diogo Jota.
But when Antoine Semenyo gave the visitors the lead after just three minutes, Liverpool had to fight extremely hard to defeat the Cherries on Saturday. Even though the Reds turned the game around with two goals in a matter of seconds just before halftime, Alexis Mac Allister’s dismissal—which was later reversed on appeal—could have killed the Reds’ momentum.
Therefore, Merson thinks Newcastle will be better equipped than Bournemouth to take advantage of Liverpool’s sloppiness in Sunday’s match, possibly leaving no way for Klopp’s team to recover.
The former Arsenal and England forward predicted that Liverpool wouldn’t be able to handle Newcastle if they started the game at a hundred miles per hour.
“They must perform at a high level, just like they did against Aston Villa. Last week, I saw Liverpool play Bournemouth, and for the first 20 minutes of the game, Bournemouth played exceptionally well.
“I had predicted that Newcastle would struggle this year, yet they excelled in their opening match. They had a chance to take the lead against Man City, but they lost that match. They’ve had a difficult start to the season, but if they win this game, they’ll have taken six of the nine points; this might put them in position to finish in the top four. The remainder of the Premier League would be informed that they pose a serious threat as a result.
