Newcastle face Brighton on Saturday afternoon at St. James’ Park.
Tim Sherwood has told Yahoo Sport’s In On Goal that Rafa Benitez will remove the shackles currently holding Newcastle’s players back as they face Brighton on Saturday afternoon.
The Toon have won just one Premier League match in their last 11 outings, beating West Ham last week 3-2 at the London Stadium. However, Wednesday night’s loss to Man City has ruined any momentum they previously had.
With Chris Hughton’s Brighton only three points above the Magpies in the Premier League table, the Toon will fancy their chances at home with Seagulls supporters likely to be at their smallest due to the distance.
However, Sherwood also claimed that if Newcastle lose the early relegation six-pointer then they will be in all kinds of trouble as Premier League sides enter the second half of the 2017-18 campaign.
“Listen, Rafa’s picking his games to win,” Sherwood said. “This will be one where he takes the shackles off the players. I think he did it very, very well against West Ham. The crowd will be up for it, won’t be many Brighton fans there, surely?
“If Brighton are to win it, Newcastle are in serious trouble. Both teams will go toe-to-toe, which is unusual.”
Newcastle will be without first-team trio Jesus Gamez, Isaac Hayden and Aleksander Mitrovic for the clash, while Brighton are missing veteran midfielder Steve Sidwell.
Three points for the Magpies will see them climb into 12th if Stoke and Southampton also drop points, but Brighton will take confidence from their 1-0 win earlier this season in September which saw Tomer Hemed score the only goal of the game.
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