Newcastle United out to increase Chelsea woes

Newcastle United have struggled in recent weeks and will be looking to get back to winning ways when troubled Premier League leaders Chelsea arrive at St James Park.

Since Andy Carroll's header gave Chris Hughton's side an impressive win over Arsenal at the Emirates, things have faltered. Two home games in a row yielded only one point for Newcastle and then they were comprehensively beaten 5-2 by Bolton last time out.

Their fans will be looking at the recent troubles of their opposition for inspiration ahead of Sunday's clash at St James Park and Newcastle are 9/2 to get the win and heap more misery on the visitors.

Chelsea have been struggling in recent weeks, with their loss to Birmingham last time out the first time they had lost back-to-back league games in over four years. In November they have lost three of four Premier League games played and they have also lost their assistant manager in controversial circumstances. Even their win over their Champions League Group's whipping boys of MSK Zilina was not comfortable going – so all in all Newcastle fans may be thinking there could not be a better time to face the Premier League leaders.

Newcastle will be without defender Fabio Collicini after his red card against Bolton, while Mike Williamson is also banned after he was handed a three-match ban for violent conduct during the same game. Hughton is likely to hand Sol Campbell and Steven Taylor their first Premier League starts on Sunday to replace the duo - and a game against Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and co could be the worst time to blood two ring-rusty centre halves.

Newcastle beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup earlier this season, but the opposition are likely to field a hardly-recognisable team in comparison. In the league the Geordie faithful have to go back to May 2006 to find the last time they tasted victory over the West London side.

The manager started the season playing a 4-4-1-1 formation, but then switched to a more attacking 4-4-2. This brought some impressive wins, at Arsenal and also the 5-1 demolition of arch-rivals Sunderland, but the struggles in recent weeks have shown this tactic could be too adventurous so the boss might be best going with a more rigid set-up against the league leaders.

Despite Chelsea's problems and the fact they will be missing the likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard there is no denying the fact they are a dangerous side capable of destroying any defence in the country and are priced at 3/4 for the win.

Chelsea could be off the top of the Premier League by Sunday and Carlo Ancelotti will not want to lose more ground on any of their rivals in the title race. Newcastle need to rediscover their winning mentality if they want to stay in the top half of the table and avoid having to worry about slipping into a relegation battle over the coming months.