Alexander Isak on the bench - Our predicted lineup for Newcastle as they take on Arsenal

Newcastle United take on Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday night - kick-off is 8pm live on TNT Sports.

Normally we'd wait until after the Friday morning press conference to put together our predicted lineup but unless Eddie Howe comes out and says flat out who he's starting, why wait? He never gives anything away anyway.

So, we've gone with an unchanged starting XI to the one that drew with Bournemouth last week despite the news that Alexander Isak and Joe Willock have returned to training.

We really hope our prediction is wrong and Howe tries a new formation to plug the leaky defence

Our thinking is that Eddie Howe won't want to risk either for 90 minutes and would rather have them impact the game later on. We also toyed with the idea of Tino Livramento replacing Dan Burn as everyone wants to see, but then we remembered how stubborn Eddie Howe is.

Goalkeeper

Martin Dubravka - Nick Pope is nearing a return, but we've still got a few weeks before M-Dubz is toppled from his position.

Defence

Kieran Trippier - Trippier will be vital against Arsenal, his leadership and cool head will be called upon to see us through.

Fabian Schar - The Toonminator has shrugged off another injury and should be fine to start again.

Sven Botman - Big Sven is going to have his work cut out for him again, he will have to marshall Bukayo Saka when he flits beyond Dan Burn with ease.

Dan Burn - We'd rather he was central as part of a back five with Tino Livramento at left-back to track Saka, but he'll be at left-back in a back four as always.

Midfield

Sean Longstaff - Longy is improving with each game and his wild shots are getting closer. Maybe this is the one where that speculative effort flies in the top corner.

Bruno Guimaraes - We hope Eddie Howe has the stones to use Bruno as a number 8 again as he's far more effective in that role than he is sitting back.

Lewis Miley - This will be another big night for Miley, he's faced some tough opposition before and come through it shining, though.

Forwards

Miguel Almiron - Miggy will be back on the right to hopefully tire out the Arsenal defence for when Joe Willock and Alexander Isak are introduced.

Anthony Gordon - AG10 will start through the middle, keeping the spot warm for Isak to hopefully come on and do some damage in the latter stages.

Harvey Barnes - Barnes will continue his reintroduction to the side and we reckon will be the one most likely to make way for Isak.

Arsenal are going to come at us hard on Saturday night and we need to be ready for it, we just hope we're still in the game by the time the two returning stars make their appearance because their pace and attacking ability could steal us a win.