Newcastle United take on Manchester City this Saturday night.

As always, one thing is for sure.

In the build up to the match we will repeatedly hear negative statistics quoted, suggesting (proving?) why Newcastle United are sure to lose to Manchester City.

As always with statistics, it often depends on which ones you choose to use.

There are of course a lot of negative ones that can be presented.

Such as…

Newcastle United have won only four of their last 44 matches against Manchester City.

Manchester City have won all of their last 13 games against Newcastle United at the Etihad.

However, there are other ways the statistics can be presented. Indeed, what I would consider the most relevant stats.

For starters, most of the negative stats you will hear repeated, the long-term ones, are overwhelmingly made up of matches played in a time period when it was the very best of times for Manchester City AND the very worst for Newcastle United.

The statistics usually quoted, are basically the last couple of decades, which include 15 seasons that Newcastle United kicked off under Mike Ashley, whilst all but a couple of years in the last 20, Manchester City...