'Atrocious': Paul Merson bemoans Newcastle United's away form as he tries to predict winner against Burnley
Newcastle United take on Burnley at Turf Moor on Tuesday night in a 7:30 pm kick-off live on Sky Sports.
It's Newcastle's final game of 2025, which, other than the Carabao Cup win in March, hasn't been the best calendar year for the Magpies. This season in particular has been a big struggle, especially away from home.
Eddie Howe will be hoping to sign off the year with his side picking up only their second Premier League away win of the campaign.
With Burnley sitting in the relegation zone, you'd expect it to be a straightforward task, but after watching Newcastle absolutely dominate Manchester United and still come away empty-handed on Boxing Day, anything can happen.
Paul Merson expects Newcastle to bag a win at Turf Moor
Thanks to Newcastle's poor away form, predicting a winner on Tuesday night is going to be difficult, but Paul Merson has given it a go in his column for Sportskeeda and he expects the Magpies to triumph.
"Burnley were unlucky not to get the win against Everton. We keep talking about it, they are always competitive in games. Even when they lose, they never get hammered. It's always the odd goal that beats them.
"When I look at Burnley, I see the lack of a good finisher in that team. They created some chances against Everton, but no one was able to find the back of the net. I think that's a massive problem.
"Newcastle's form on the road has been atrocious! I saw them against Manchester United last weekend. How can a team dominate so much and not score a goal? The second half was all Newcastle and they got nowhere near to scoring.
"Eddie Howe will be the first to admit that Newcastle have not performed well this season. They've been hugely inconsistent. You could argue they played well to get something out of the game against United, but that's just not enough.
"Newcastle are in desperate need of a run. If they can get five, six wins on the bounce, they will fly up the table because it's really tight among the mid-table teams. Backing them to win here.
"Prediction: Burnley 0-2 Newcastle United"
Newcastle usually start the new year strong, so let's start a couple of days early
A 2-0 win on the road against Burnley almost feels like a low score, and probably would be in any other season, but with our away form, that would actually be a massive result for us.
In all honesty, we'd take a scrappy 1-0 at this point, as long as we won. Although if that does end up being the case, I reserve the right to be a total mardy arse when I do the match report tomorrow night.
Let's sign off the year properly and get an early start on a good run of form for the new year.
