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Premier League: Win a must for both sides on Tyneside

Two teams in need of a win meet at St James' Park when Newcastle United play host to Arsenal in the Premier League as Saturday night turns into the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Gunners have slipped five points off the pace being set by Manchester City on the back of a loss and a draw in their last two games, although a 3-0 midweek EFL Cup win at Preston will have lifted morale.

The Magpies, meanwhile, also claimed a midweek cup win as they beat Chelsea 2-0 on Tyneside, but in the league they are without a win in their last five matches.

. What: Newcastle United v Arsenal, Premier League
. Where: St James' Park, Newcastle
. When: 23:30 Saturday 2nd November
. How to watch: Optus Sport
. Odds: Newcastle 3.75, Draw 3.75, Arsenal 1.95

Strong start slips away for Magpies

Newcastle were expected to be contenders for a top-four finish before the season started and 10 points from their opening four games seemed to confirm that status.

However, since then three losses and two draws have halted their progress and they have slid down to 12th place in the standings, although it is worth noting that one of the draws was a 1-1 result at home to Man City.

Only one of the Toon's nine league games so far this season has been decided by a margin of more than one goal, a 3-1 defeat at Fulham in mid-September.

With that in mind, either team to win by one goal is available at 2.40, while 2 or 3 total goals in the game is a 2.00 shot.

One player Magpies boss Eddie Howe will be looking to for inspiration is Sweden striker Alexander Isak, who has been regularly linked with interest from the Gunners.

The 25-year-old frontman has scored in each of his last two games, both against Chelsea, and is 3.25 to score at anytime in this match, while he is 7.00 to net the first goal of the game.

Last season an Anthony Gordon goal gave the Magpies a 1-0 win over the Gunners in this fixture, but Arsenal had won on four of their previous five league visits to St James' Park.

Absences starting to hurt Gunners

Arsenal have certainly not made a bad start to the season, but they are already under pressure to avoid any further slip-ups which could see their title hopes start to evaporate.

In truth there is not too much wrong in Mikel Arteta's side, who have claimed 2-2 draws against both Man City and more recently Liverpool, and they are 1.95 hot fancies to take all three points here.

Their only loss to date came when they went down 2-0 at Bournemouth, when a red card dished out to French defender William Saliba proved decisive.

The defensive issues could be compounded by the absences of Gabriel and Ben White, who both missed out in midweek, although Jurrien Timber and former Magpies defensive midfielder Mikel Merino played the first 45 minutes of the comfortable win at Championship Preston.

Summer signing Riccardo Calafiori is facing several weeks out due to a knee injury, while Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney remained sidelined, leaving Arteta very short on options in defence.

Further forward the continued absence of captain Martin Odegaard due to an ankle problem is certainly having an effect on the fluency of the Gunners' play, although the Norwegian is expected to be back in the near future.

Up top Arteta continues to rely on Kai Havertz as his main man and he will have been delighted to see the Germany international come off the bench and find the net against Preston, having failed to score in any of his three previous appearances.

The former Bayer Leverkusen ace has netted in four consecutive games before his mini-drought and he is 3.40 to score at anytime on Tyneside, while he is 7.50 to score the first goal of the game.

That is something he has already done three times in the league this season.

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