Newcastle v Fulham: Free-flowing visitors to put hosts to sword

Tradition dictates that Fulham struggle away from Craven Cottage, however recent exploits provide cause for optimism here. They beat Tottenham at White Hart Lane on their last trip, and are 12/5 to the same to Newcastle here. A draw can be taken at the same price.

History certainly favours Martin Jol’s side. Newcastle have only won one of their last seven with Fulham, who in turn have won three of the last four clashes. At 11/10 for the win the Magpies appear to offer little value. They have now lost three straight – conceding eight goals in the process – and the impending visit of the attack-minded Cottagers will be a stringent physical test for Alan Pardew’s squad.

Fulham will be all the more confident of upsetting the Geordie faithful considering that the Magpies are returning from a defeat at the hands of Benfica in Portugal in the Europa League. Jol’s men are now unbeaten in five games, keeping clean sheets in three of those. They are 10/3 to shut the home side out here.

Dimitar Berbatov has found the net six times in his last six fixtures, and can be backed at 5/1 to open the scoring – a feat he’s achieved in each of the games in which he’s scored on this current run; the languid Bulgarian is 11/8 to register anytime.

Furthermore, Fulham are 13/10 to lead 1-0 at anytime, which seems plausible considering they haven’t gone behind in any of their last five matches.

The London side’s carefree style bares all the hallmarks of a side playing without fear of relegation, and should they maintain that success, wincast odds of 10/3 for Berbatov to score and Fulham to win certainly appeals.

From a Newcastle perspective, Papiss Cisse has been the leading figure in attack this term, scoring in three of his past five games. He is 9/2 to bag the first goal here, but with two of those three recent successes coming after 90 minutes, 6/5 for an anytime strike represents the safer option.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing