Week 21

Blackburn vs. Newcastle may seem like a fairly low key affair if you were looking at it at the start of the season but with Rovers fighting with some vigour for their Premier League lives and Newcastle just 5 points a drift of the Champions League spots there is far more intrigue in this match than first meets the eye.

On top of the relative league positions this match up at Ewood Park pits together two of the highest scoring sides in the league. Blackburn are currently the 6th on the goals for tables with Newcastle a single goal behind them in 7th so there could be goals here, and maybe more than you might expect.

Blackburn have hit 3 or more goals in a game on no fewer than 6 occasions this season, which is pretty impressive. But strangely enough they haven't scored exactly 2 goals in any game this season so the common result for them is to score 1 or 3.

Newcastle are capable of a goal or two as well and even though their main threat Demba Ba is missing they have a few in midfield capable of producing moments of magic. The most surprising thing about Newcastle is that they went away to Fulham last week and some how conceded 5 goals. This may have come as a shock to many, as Newcastle's early season reputation was one for keeping clean sheets and defending heroically, but their more recent form (over the last 10 games) suggests this may well have been on the way for some time, and more could follow against an attacking team like Blackburn.

Newcastle have conceded 3 or more goals in 6 of their last 11 games, which indicates an almost relegation standard defence, but is made even more astonishing by the fact that during those 11 matches they've also kept 4 clean sheets, and that only 1 team managed to score more than 1 goal past them in their first 11 games of the season.

The injury of Steven Taylor has certainly had an impact, but their league position and ability to pull clean sheets from runs of bad form may be hiding some obvious frailties in their defence and could provide a few opportunities for Blackburn even without Yakubu in the team. It has been a season of two halves for Newcastle and the excellent first half may be hiding a second half that is carrying obvious signs of danger for them.