Newcastle United take on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in a 2pm kick-off live on Sky Sports and the team news is now in.
As suspected, Eddie Howe has resisted the urge to many any changes to the lineup that defeated Arsenal last weekend.
That means Sandro Tonali will have to watch on from the bench before he's likely brought on somewhere around the hour mark knowing Howe.
Sean "Lucky Charm" Longstaff keeps his place in the centre of the park at the expense of Tonali.
The lack of changes also means we expect to see Anthony Gordon play wide right while Joelinton will be on the opposite flank supported by Lewis Hall and Joe Willock.
This system worked wonders last week against Arsenal, and today will be the big test to see if it can work on the road too.
Jacob Murphy and Matt Targett return to the bench for Newcastle and while we may see the former we doubt we'll see the latter on the pitch at any time.
The big surprise coming from Nottingham Forest's team selection is that former Magpie Elliot Anderson is starting today on the bench, although Chris Wood is on from the start.
Another former Newcastle man, Matz Sels is between the sticks for Forest too.
Newcastle target Anthony Elanga is on from the start to audition for a place in Eddie Howe's squad going forward should Newcastle wish to return to Forest with another bid for the Swedish winger.
It's a tough one to call ... so I'm not going to try. Howay Eddie Howe's Unchanged Mags!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |