The Harry Redknapp Newcastle United verdict’s now in

Harry Redknapp has been talking about Newcastle United.

The former Spurs and West Ham manager, discussing Eddie Howe and his team now four months into the new season.

Newcastle United playing Chelsea this weekend.

A 12.30pm kick-off on Saturday afternoon at St James’ Park.

Newcastle United looking to make it two wins in a row, having got past Fulham in midweek, yet another Carabao Cup semi-final for NUFC under Eddie Howe.

Saturday is also an opportunity to get back on track in the Premier League after last Sunday’s defeat. Whilst Chelsea are currently fourth, a very tight league table means that 12th place Newcastle United will move to only three points behind Chelsea with a home win.

Speaking to BetVictor ahead of the match, Harry Redknapp has called this fixture a chance to “bounce back” from the Sunderland defeat, building on that midweek cup victory. Harry Redknapp saying “if there’s one game you can’t lose” it is the derby.

In their last nine home games in all competitions, Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United team have won eight and drawn one, with no defeats at St James’ Park since September.

Harry Redknapp predicts a 2-1 win for United, explaining; “I’m leaning towards Newcastle United here; I expect a big response [to the derby defeat].”

Chelsea haven’t been in great form and before winning 2-0 at home to Everton last Saturday they had won none of their last four matches. Losing to Leeds and Atalanta, plus draws at home to Arsenal and away at out of form Bournemouth.

Chelsea struggled past League One Cardiff in midweek and were lucky it didn’t go to penalties.

Harry Redknapp has picked out Nick Woltemade as the player to watch out for in this match on Saturday, declaring; “The lad scored that freak own goal last week, he will need to bounce back here.”

It was a massive boost in midweek, especially for Nick Woltemade, to see Yoane Wissa make his first start for Newcastle United. It has been tough for Big Nick starting pretty much every match since his arrival and with Wissa to share the workload, it will be great for both players and the team overall.

In midweek, it only took Wissa ten minutes to get his first goal for NUFC, and Nick Woltemade looked sharp when he came on for the final 20 minutes with Sandro Tonali against Fulham.

A massive boost for Eddie Howe to have his strikers available and I think we will see the pair of them both getting on the pitch this weekend, whether it will be swapping one for the other, or we will see them playing together for some of the match, remains to be seen.

Either way, I agree with Harry Redknapp, I also think Newcastle can get the win over Chelsea.