The road splits into two.

Newcastle still holds its destiny in its own hands and knows that one point in their match against Leicester early tomorrow morning (May 23rd) will secure them a place back in the league they last played in the 2002-2003 season.

Even if Newcastle lose both of their last two matches against Leicester and Chelsea (28.5), they will still achieve their goal if Liverpool cannot score enough goals against Southampton to have a better goal difference than them. This shows that Liverpool have virtually no chance of finishing in the top 4 of the Premier League this season, especially after MU beat Bournemouth (1-0) last weekend.

Newcastle (left) need just one more point to officially secure their place in next season's Champions League.

Meanwhile, Leicester are on the brink of relegation for the first time since the 2014-2015 season. At this point, the Foxes desperately need a win to keep their hopes of staying in the Premier League alive, but everything seems to be against them. Newcastle manager Howe has never lost a Premier League home game against Leicester (4 wins, 2 draws), while the Foxes haven't won their last away game in eight seasons (3 draws, 5 losses).

Those aren't the kind of statistics manager Smith wants to hear, especially when his Leicester team is only given a 30.8% chance of beating Newcastle by Opta's supercomputer, and even more sadly, the Foxes are expected to follow Southampton down to the Championship next season.

Newcastle have squad concerns with at least six players absent for various reasons, but Leicester are in a similar situation with at least five players sidelined. However, the real question is whether the Foxes can recover from two consecutive defeats against Fulham (3-5) and Liverpool (0-3)? Can Leicester's flawed defense withstand Newcastle's formidable attack? And can the visitors' less-than-formidable attack penetrate the home side's solid defense?

It's difficult to find positive answers to the aforementioned problems, even if Newcastle are unlikely to produce another impressive performance in just 5 days, after their demolition of Brighton (4-1) midweek. Furthermore, Leicester are a team almost completely lacking confidence at the moment, with a rather poor away record. Therefore, the match at St. James' Park early tomorrow morning could take two paths. It could send the Magpies to heaven and continue to torment the Foxes to hell.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/duong-chia-hai-nga-18523052012442044.htm