Eddie Howe not pleased with rule change that will allow 'incredible' star to face Newcastle United on Tuesday night
Just when you thought it was safe ... We genuinely thought that Newcastle United would avoid the peril of having to face one of the Premier League's most in-form players on Tuesday night.
Newcastle host Manchester City in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final on Tuesday night, and the one bit of solace we took ahead of this fixture was that Pep Guardiola's latest signing, Antoine Semenyo, wouldn't be involved.
Semenyo, who has been on fire this season, made an appearance in the Carabao Cup for Bournemouth earlier in the season, albeit from the bench. Naturally, we assumed this would cup tie him for our fixture.
The Ghanaian forward made his debut for City on Saturday in their 10-1 demolition of Exeter City, finding himself on the scoresheet as he so often does.
A rule change this season means Antoine Semenyo can play for Manchester City on Tuesday
It turns out, however, that this season saw the introduction of EFL rule 6.4, which allows players to represent two teams in the EFL Cup, something that Eddie Howe didn't seem to be pleased about when asked about it this morning in his press conference.
“Yeah, it was nice to find out that rule had changed after finding out they’d signed him.
“I have to say that’s one rule change I probably wouldn’t be supportive of at this current moment.
“But Antoine’s had an incredible season. I’m a big admirer of his and he scored on his debut, so fair play to him. I think Man City have signed a very, very good player.”
It is what it is. We've got this!
That's certainly a big knock to the confidence ahead of tomorrow's game, but to be the best, you've got to beat the best.
Newcastle didn't take the easy route to hoisting the cup last season, so why should we have it easy this time? It just makes the win all the sweeter.
There is a chance that Pep doesn't play Semenyo anyway after handing him his debut on Saturday. Fingers crossed, anyway.
