‘Data Experts’ predict Newcastle United’s chances of victory over Aston Villa with tight encounter expected at St James's Park

Eddie Howe’s side will be back in action at St James’s Park just five days after their midweek triumph over Everton.

Aston Villa are the opponents and it’s a fixture that Newcastle enjoy some relative success in during recent times having not tasted defeat on their home turf against the Villains since 2005.

It will be the first time a team managed by Howe will square-off against a Steven Gerrard side and it is promising to be a very close affair.

Gerrard admitted yesterday that he expects a ‘tough’ game against a Newcastle side full of ‘dangerous’ players:

"They’ve come through a transfer window and made some real good additions to what they already had. They’ve got some dangerous players, Eddie’s got a good style and we go there giving them the utmost respect.

"Every team and every challenge in the Premier League is tough, difficult and dangerous in different ways, so we have to respect that and prepare in the best possible way."

Both teams come into the game in good form with Villa’s defeat to Brentford on January 2 being the only league defeat either team have suffered so far in 2022 and even the supercomputer cannot separate the two teams and predict a winner with great certainty.

Supercomputer prediction

Newcastle United win: 35%

Draw: 26%

Aston Villa win: 39%

All predictions courtesy of FiveThirtyEight

Kick-off is at 2pm at St James’s Park and the Shields Gazette will bring you all the latest updates, news and reaction from the game.

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