Pundits in agreement with their Newcastle vs Aston Villa predictions

Newcastle United will be looking for their third consecutive Premier League victory when they host Aston Villa on Sunday.

The Magpies can continue the momentum that has carried them out of the bottom three following wins against Leeds United and Everton.

Opponents Villa, meanwhile, are also on a decent run of form themselves, and will be hoping to stretch their unbeaten run to four matches.

Steven Gerrard’s side’s victory at Everton came either side of home draws against Manchester United and Leeds United and they could move into the top half of the table with a win in the Northeast this weekend.

FiveThirtyEight, a website that gives data-driven predictions for matches, believes Newcastle are slight underdogs at St. James’ Park, with a 35% chance of winning, in comparison to Aston Villa’s 39%.

Pundits from across the media have given their views on the upcoming fixture and Chronicle Live have rounded them up for you.

BBC Sport’s Mark Lawrenson is predicting a tight game on Sunday with both sides earning a share of the spoils.

He said: “There have been plenty of positives for both teams in the past couple of weeks and this has the making of a really good game. It's certainly a hard one to call.

“Philippe Coutinho has been fabulous since joining Aston Villa last month and Newcastle will do well to keep him quiet, as well as Jacob Ramsey, who looks like he is going to be quite a player.

“Newcastle got a huge win over Everton on Tuesday, and you could see what it meant to everyone at St James' Park. Now they have to try to maintain some of that momentum.”

In his latest Bet Victor column, Michael Owen is also expecting a close affair.

He said: “That was a huge win for Newcastle against Everton. The fans were brilliant and all