Manchester United will be aiming to keep up their push for a top four spot tonight, as they travel to St James’ Park to face a middling Newcastle at 7.45pm on BT Sport 1.

It’s been much of the same this season for the Magpies. Since they returned to the top flight in 2010, they have finished dead centre in the middle of the table or lower, bar one anomalous season when they managed the heady heights of 5th; this year looks like it won’t be any different. Sitting in 11th and 4 points adrift of 10th place Stoke, Newcastle United have been the footballing equivalent of a shrug, especially in the second half of the season.



In the last 6 games their form splits neatly into 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, with little in the way of surprises. They have lost to the teams above them, 5-0 at Manchester City and 2-1 against Southampton, beaten the teams below them, with a 3-0 victory at Hull and a weekend win over Aston Villa, and drawn with the teams near them in the league, seeing a 1-1 result against Stoke and 12th place Crystal Palace. On top of this, Newcastle haven’t won back to back games since November; none of which bodes well for their match against Manchester United.

There remains in the media wariness towards Louis van Gaal, with constant suggestions that he is failing in some way or another. However, United are still pushing for a place in Europe (once a given, but after the Moyes-debacle something of a qualified success) and have in fact only lost 2 of their last 21 games. Yet they can’t afford a slip up tonight. Whilst they may only be 1 point behind Arsenal in 3rd, they are also only 1 point ahead of Southampton in 5th, and 2 points above Liverpool in 6th. The race for one of feasibly 3 undecided spots in Europe has become as tight as the relegation battle at the bottom of the table, and even a draw tonight for United could be damaging.



If van Gaal continues to be a divisive figure, then so too does di Maria. The most expensive signing in British footballing history has had big expectations to live up to, and has wilted under the spotlight. Di Maria’s name has been absent from United’s Premier League goal sheet since the very start of October, and was embarrassingly taken off at half time at the weekend after he failed to justify his selection, even against a team like Sunderland. With van Gaal warning the best of the Argentinian may not be seen till next season, di Maria will be hoping to speed up this process in Newcastle tonight.

Selection wise both sides will be without key players: for the Toon, Massadio Haidara is likely to be absent, whilst Remy Cabella is still out and Jack Colback finishes his 2 match ban; in the Manchester camp, Luke Shaw and Phil Jones return whilst Michael Carrick and Robin van Persie are both missing through injury. This leaves Newcastle with Papiss Cisse at 6/1 to score first on 11 goals, alongside Perez on 5 goals at 9/1 and Moussa Sissoko on 3 goals at 16/1. For Manchester United the odds are slightly better, with Rooney leading the charge at 15/4 on 11 goals, with Juan Mata on 6 goals at 7/1 and Falcao at 5/1 on 4 goals.

Given the fact that there hasn’t been more than a one-goal winning margin in the past dozen games at St James’ Park, our Spreadex traders are offering a Total Goals spread of 2.5-2.7. And rather unsurprisingly, our clients and traders alike are fancying an away win, with a Manchester United/Newcastle United (h) Goal Supremacy spread betting quote of 0.5-0.7.