Southampton and Newcastle were two of the most in-form sides in the Premier League heading into the previous round, but as the Magpies extended their run to eight league games unbeaten, beating Brighton 2-1 at St James’ Park, the Les Saints came down to earth with a humble 4-0 loss to Aston Villa.

The result more or less ended Ralph Hasenhüttl’s men’s slim hopes of reaching European football this season, while for Eddie Howe’s men their sharp comeback in form took them seven points clear of the area. relegation.

Despite Southampton’s poor result at the weekend, they are still well placed at present and should in no way be left out of this game.

According to expected points (xP)Newcastle have been somewhat lucky to have picked up as many points as they have in their last eight – not to say they haven’t improved under Howe, just a 12-point comeback at the instead of 18 would actually be more representative of their performance. .

Kick-off time: 19:30 GMT, Thursday

Since this match has already been covered in this week’s Beat The Market column, there’s no reason to re-enter the win-draw-win market, but there is a selection to grab the attention among bets on the cards, namely 50+ BOOKING POINTS at the price of 5/6.

Saints have received two or more cards in 16 of their 27 appearances this season (59%), and perhaps it should have been more, with only Watford committing more fouls on average than Hasenhüttl’s men.

More relevant than Southampton’s trend for yellows, however, is perhaps the intense direction in which games involving Newcastle tend to go.

Only games involving Leeds have seen more yellow cards than games involving the Magpies (115) this season, with 4.42 cards per game, and Toon’s games have only gotten fiercer since the turn of the year, their seven matches in 2022 seeing 35 bookings.

With both teams favoring a high-intensity style of play, many players could end up in the notebook of Kevin Friend, who, by the way, has issued more yellow cards per game than any other referee to take into consideration. load ten or more. Premier League fixtures this season.

Southampton v Newcastle best bets and score prediction

• 1pt 50+ reservation points at 11/8 (Sky Bet)

Score prediction: Southampton 2-1 Newcastle (Sky Bet Odds: 13/2)

Odds correct as of 12:00 GMT (08/03/22)

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