Ian Horrocks/Newcastle United/Getty ImagesHatem Ben Arfa's hamstring injury is one of many for Newcastle

Two away games in four days off the back of two home league defeats, a disappointing European performance - Newcastle's numerous injuries are the last thing they need at the moment. Form can't get much worse so perhaps results are achievable even with a heavily depleted squad.

The contrast in styles of the two upcoming opponents, Southampton and Stoke, couldn't be much more different. This presents an interesting challenge to Alan Pardew as he sets up against a passing team on Sunday and a physically dominant one Wednesday, though with so few players at his disposal the team will almost pick itself.

The Newcastle injury list is as bad as it has been for years. In fact, according to physioroom.com, Newcastle have more injuries than any other side in the league as well as one of the smallest squads:

Add in Fabricio Coloccini's suspension for Sunday and things are looking desperate. Still - Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Davide Santon, Mike Williamson, Steven Taylor, Chiek Tiote, Vurnon Anita, Shane Ferguson, Sylvain Marveaux, Demba Ba and Sammy Ameobi is a lineup capable of a positive result.

Injuries such as Ryan Taylor's ACL are one thing but there are far too many pulls and strains happening - is this a preparation and coaching issue or just bad luck? It is amazing how few injuries happen to a team riding on a wave of great form and how many happen to struggling ones. There is an obvious correlation but definitely a psychological element too.

Southampton

This is Newcastle's first game in Southampton for six years. Their record at the Dell was abysmal, but that was a long time ago. Pardew has been there more recently though - he was Southampton manager until he was fired in August 2010 with poor morale amongst players and staff blamed.

Southampton have played nice football this season but have a soft centre which has led to them conceding 30 league goals already - four more than the next worst (QPR, who have played a game more). They have managed to score 18 which as of Saturday is more than any other team in the bottom half of the table and five more than Newcastle.

Their inability to defend vs Newcastle's lack of goals makes the battle between Demba Ba and the Southampton defence interesting. Southampton currently lie in 19th place with 8 points but a win would put them within three of Newcastle. Southampton have only managed one home victory so far (4-1 vs. Aston Villa) and defeats include 0-2 to Wigan. So even with a depleted squad a result for Newcastle is not out of the question.

One final point of interest is that Southampton spent over £33,000,000 in the summer, more than Newcastle have spent in the last three transfer windows combined.

Stoke

Newcastle's 3-1 win at the Britannia last season was one of the club's most complete away performances ever. Gary Neville described it as the best away performance he'd seen by any Premier League team all things considered. The big difference between then and now is that Newcastle went into that game after an undefeated start to the season -- the win at Stoke took that unbeaten record to 10 games. What a contrast to current form. The Britannia was also the scene of one of Pardew's heaviest defeats as Newcastle manager - a 4-0 thrashing in March 2011 when he decided to try an experimental 5-3-2.

Coloccini will return to the Newcastle lineup but he is not necessarily the man to deal with the inevitable aerial bombardment. He is obviously a must-start though.

Stoke beat Fulham 1-0 Saturday to climb to 11th in the table (Newcastle dropped to 14th). They have won three and lost only three. Impressively, they have conceded only 11 goals in their 13 league goals and only one was at home (vs Manchester City). They are proving to be very hard to beat again.

Newcastle's poor goal scoring record against Stoke's excellent defensive record could see this one end with 'Newcastle 0', but these stats are there to be broken.

It's going to be tough. Let me know your predictions.

Follow me on Twitter @MarcSDuffy and say hello

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