Newcastle United take on Fulham at St James' Park this afternoon and the visitors arrive in fantastic form contrasting the downward slump of Eddie Howe's men.
It's an old-fashioned 3pm Saturday kick-off which means there will be no live TV coverage in the UK meaning that fans are potentially going to miss out on the return of the Rolls Royce.
Sven Botman has been out of action for months since he picked up a knee injury which has kept him out of the last 17 games, but the giant Dutchman has posted something on Instagram to get the Geordie pulses racing.
There had been talk that he was progressing well and Craig Hope even said yesterday that there's an outside chance he could make the bench against Fulham.
Botman posted an Instagram reel of himself in action alongside a caption showing the fixture details for today's game.
If that's not a sign that the £35million man is back in contention, then we don't know what is.
Common sense would tell you that he'll be on the bench as we doubt Eddie Howe would be reckless enough to throw him back into the starting lineup after so long out of the game, but just knowing he's fit enough to be involved in some way is a massive boost.
It should also light a fire under Jamaal Lascelles' backside too as now he's going to have to fight if he wants to keep his place in the starting XI.
Botman's return has fired us up and given us that little confidence boost we've been needing. It's still going to be a challenge today, but we're feeling better about it now.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
19 | 28 | 46 |
2 |
Arsenal
|
20 | 21 | 40 |
3 |
Nottingham Forest
|
20 | 10 | 40 |
4 |
Chelsea
|
20 | 15 | 36 |
5 |
Newcastle United
|
20 | 12 | 35 |
6 |
Manchester City
|
20 | 9 | 34 |
7 |
Bournemouth
|
20 | 7 | 33 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
20 | -2 | 32 |
9 |
Fulham
|
20 | 3 | 30 |
10 |
Brighton
|
20 | 1 | 28 |
11 |
Brentford
|
20 | 3 | 27 |
12 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
20 | 12 | 24 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
20 | -5 | 23 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
20 | -15 | 23 |
15 |
Crystal Palace
|
20 | -7 | 21 |
16 |
Everton
|
19 | -10 | 17 |
17 |
Wolves
|
20 | -14 | 16 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
20 | -15 | 16 |
19 |
Leicester
|
20 | -21 | 14 |
20 |
Southampton
|
20 | -32 | 6 |