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Newcastle United vs Leicester City

In this context odds of 6/4 on an away win look short and that price is made to look even poorer value when one accounts for the fact that Newcastle United have lost just one of their last eight Premier League meetings with Leicester City (W4 D3) and have won each of their last four home fixtures against the Foxes.

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McClaren was “mad” in the dressing room after the game, according to Wijnaldum, who felt United played as “individuals”, not as a team. There are no excuses at all, we know that.

“Sometimes, you might not be able to see that from outside the pitch, and maybe sometimes a few of the players are not as loud as they should be”.

McClaren and his players were booed at the final whistle by angry fans unhappy with the the team’s abject performance.

If he is dropped then sadly we are once again looking at a player who will come in who has done absolutely nothing to convince anybody that he deserves to.

McClaren was also full of praise for Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester side, who he admitted were better than Newcastle in every department.

“Sometimes it is not all fine weather and things going your way, sometimes you need to roll your sleeves up and this is a time when we have to do exactly that”.

Previous managers have borne the brunt of their frustrations, most notably Alan Pardew, who came in for such awful abuse that he eventually quit to take over at Crystal Palace, where he is certainly more highly-regarded.

Jamie Vardy will equal Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record if he recovers from a hip injury to score in a 10th straight game, with Van Nistelrooy having set the record while at Manchester United in 2003.

“From our own point of view we need to make sure we are doing that”.

“You can play games badly – we are human – but you must always work to get the result”. Cheick Tiote suffered a thigh injury in the early stages of this weekend’s defeat, but it is hoped the Ivory Coast global will be available at Selhurst Park.

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Asked if Perez could go when the transfer window re-opens boss Steve McClaren said: “January is not here yet and we’ll only know at the end of that month when we hold on to our best players”.

Faustino Asprilla