Newcastle United take on Swansea City in the Premier League this afternoon.
General view inside the Liberty Stadium
Pundit Mark Lawrenson has told BBC Sport that he thinks Swansea City will beat Newcastle United 2-0 at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon.
The Swans head into the game having beaten Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park in their last Premier League outing, handing manager Paul Clement his first league win of the season.
Having previously lost 4-0 to Manchester United and drawn 0-0 with Southampton, Swansea now need to kick on from their win over Palace – and manager Paul Clement now has new faces to call on.
Whilst he lost last season’s top goalscorer Fernando Llorente to Tottenham, Clement did manage to tie up two huge deals, bringing ex-Swans striker Wilfried Bony back to the club from Manchester City, whilst Bayern Munich wonderkid Renato Sanches has arrived on loan.
Those two additions should strengthen this Swansea side, and they could make their debuts against a Newcastle side who endured a difficult transfer window.
Rafael Benitez didn’t quite get the players he wanted in at St. James’ Park, but he did pick up a first win of the season in Newcastle’s last Premier League game, defeating West Ham United 3-0.
Newcastle will be hoping for another strong performance and result, but pundit Mark Lawrenson has told BBC Sport that he is predicting a 2-0 win for Swansea, praising the signings of Bony and Sanches.
Lawrenson not only predicted a loss today, but also offered a bleak forecast for the rest of the season, stating that he thinks it will be a ‘real battle’ for Newcastle to stay in the Premier League, as they have ‘too many Championship players’.
“I think Renato Sanches is a great signing for Swansea and I will be very interested to see how he gets on in the Premier League,” said Lawrenson. “Another late arrival, Wilfried Bony, is a good buy by the Welsh side too. With his body shape, he is the kind of striker who needs to be match sharp, and if he is playing every week, then we might see him find the kind of form he showed in his first spell there.
“In contrast, Newcastle have not strengthened enough. With what they have got, I can see a season of struggle ahead. At the start of the season Magpies owner Mike Ashley said he did not have the cash to compete with the top clubs but that did not make sense to me – the top six are not Newcastle’s rivals. What they needed to do in the transfer market was compete for players with the bottom six, because they are a newly promoted club, and they still have too many Championship players. It is going to be a real battle for them to stay up,” he added.
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