Newcastle United’s bid for an automatic promotion spot seems to have taken a blow after their prolific goal scorer, Dwight Gayle had to be substituted 35 minutes into their 2-0 win over Aston Villa. The Magpies’ manager, Rafael Benitez has said that Gayle will be missing a few games and is confident that they can do well without him again.
Though the Magpies’ boss is confident, the firepower of the Championship top scorer will be missed as they will be playing away from home to 2nd placed Brighton Hove Albion, 3rd placed Huddersfield Town and 4th placed Reading FC in the next 5 games.
Serbian striker, Aleksander Mitrovic is set to deputise the English striker for the upcoming games, but it is unlikely that Gayle will be available before the away game against Birmingham City on March 18.
Gayle has scored 20 goals and set up 2 other from his 24 appearances this season and is currently the top scorer of the Premier League, leading Chris Wood (19 goals) and Tammy Abraham (18 goals). The target-man was seen holding his hamstring, a recurrence of the injury that saw him miss 6 games over the last month. He returned to the pitch against Norwich City, playing the final 14 minutes of the 2-2 draw at Carrow Road.
Gayle had a prolific start to his professional career, scoring 7 goals in 18 appearances for League Two side, Dagenham and Redbridge and the same number of goals in 9 appearances for then Championship side, Peterborough United. His shooting boots went missing after he joined Premier League side, Crystal Palace, scoring only 15 goals in 64 league appearances over 3 seasons. However, the striker has regained his form since returning to Championship, with Newcastle United.
Newcastle United begin their run of games against the relegation threatened Bristol City, against whom they won 1-0 away from home in the previous encounter. In their previous meetings against these sides, the Magpies have won against Brighton Hove Albion (2-0) and Reading FC (4-1), while losing to Fulham (0-1) and Huddersfield Town (1-2).
A total of 8 goals have been scored by the Magpies in this set of fixtures in the first half of the season, with 50% coming from the shooting boots of Dwight Gayle. The next 3 top scorers in the season so far for them are attacking midfielders Matt Ritchie (8 goals), Ayoze Pérez (5 goals) and central midfielder, Yoan Gauffran (5 goals).
The season is approaching its business end and this is far by the most defining set of fixtures for Newcastle United as they seek to return to the top flight of English football or Premier League next season, hopefully through automatic promotion. Only time will tell us if Rafa Benitez and Newcastle United will miss their prolific goalscorer in the top of the table clashes.
Statistics via Whoscored
