Manchester City are strong favourites to beat Burnley on Saturday - and not just because of recent meetings.
Each of the last four meetings at the Etihad has seen a 5-0 home win, with no fixture in history producing five in a row.
But there is also form to consider. City went into the international break on the high of four points from trips to Stamford Bridge and Anfield, while Burnley are languishing in the relegation zone as one of four sides yet to win a match. Nobody doubts that Sean Dyche and his staff will keep the Clarets up given their impressive track record, yet they are also prone to slow starts and are much trickier to beat at Turf Moor.
Pep Guardiola is the best coach in the world at winning league titles and knows better than most how important timing can be in the fixture list; it is why, for instance, he prefers not to play newly-promoted sides at the beginning of the season when they are still confident and used to winning most games.
The takeover at Newcastle during the international break has reiterated that point.
Before it happened, a trip to St James' Park on December 18 looked like one of City's more straightforward games that month - their next four games are Leicester (h), Brentford (a), Arsenal (a), and Chelsea (h). With so much unrest over Mike Ashley's prolonged ownership, Steve Bruce would probably have had to win every game between now and then while wearing a Rafa Benitez mask in order to lighten the mood.
Instead, thanks to the influx of incredibly rich owners, that day will be seen as a landmark moment as the latest super-rich club look to make a statement against the last one to really shake up the order of English football. The narrative has already been written and 50,000 Geordies as well as a few Saudis will be expectant - a word that hasn't been used up there for a long time.
Just as that fixture looks tougher than it appeared a few weeks ago, City have to expect that their date with Burnley on April 2 feels far more difficult than the home game on Saturday will be. If they are still in the thick of a title race by then, it could have all the tension of the 2019 match that was won by a solitary Sergio Aguero strike that just about went over the line and had Liverpool fans grasping for their rulers.
Burnley at home is normally a match you need to be winning if you want to claim titles, and Newcastle are a useful reminder of the importance of making the most of the more favourable circumstances because you never know what is around the corner.
