Though Aston Villa were arguably the slightly stronger side on Wednesday, Sheffield United can rightly feel aggrieved that their opening Premier League fixture post-lockdown didn’t end with three points heading back to Bramall Lane because, well, they scored the only goal of the game.

As for Newcastle, safety is all but assured, and barring a catastrophic run of results, The Magpies are now just playing for a top-half finish, which is very much within their reach.

While The Blades are favourites ahead of this one, I’m going to stay away from any result-based tip. In a normal world, I’d be looking at a narrow away win, but it’s impossible to accurately predict how Chris Wilder’s men will respond physically to their midweek fixture.

It was noticeable how tired both sets of players were at Villa Park by full-time, and four days, after such a long lay-off, isn’t much time for Sheffield United’s players to recuperate and make the long journey up to Tyneside.

However, at 6/4 I believe the score to be goalless at half-time is very good value.

This won’t be a particularly high-quality affair (as is often the case in Newcastle games, which generally works in their favour), and the stats suggest there won’t be many goals to defy this prediction.

The lack of a St. James’ Park crowd won’t help Steve Bruce’s men, and Newcastle going into the break goalless on 12 occasions is an encouraging sign.

The Blades have also gone into half-time goalless on 12 occasions, so a goalless first half at 6/4 looks like very tasty value.

0-0 half-time - 1pt @ 6/4