Joe Willock starts in positive-looking Newcastle United lineup to face Arsenal in Carabao Cup semi-final first leg

Newcastle United are about to take on Arsenal in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at the Emirates Stadium. Kick-off is at 8pm live on Sky Sports Football and ITV.

Eddie Howe has been forced into a change with Bruno Guimaraes suspended for this one along with Fabian Schar who also missed Saturday's win over Tottenham Hotspur.

With captain Bruno out, we weren't 100% sure which way Eddie Howe would go with this lineup, but one thing's for sure, the one man Eddie Howe didn't need to make a call on was the twelfth man.

Six thousand Geordies have travelled to the Capital to put on a display for their lads in a bid to make it feel as much like a home atmosphere as they can.

Joe Willock gets the nod as Bruno Guimaraes' replacement

We can't say that we were surprised to get our prediction wrong here, there were too many variables in play.

Eddie Howe has stuck with Tino Livramento and given the captain's armband to Dan Burn who starts alongside Sven Botman again.

Joe Willock has been called up to replace Bruno Guimaraes which is very interesting. It suggests that Eddie Howe isn't sitting back and aiming for damage limitation, he's sending our lads out there to bring back a lead to St James' Park and we love it.

Mikel Arteta has made four changes from the lineup that drew with Brighton

Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta has made four changes to the side that drew with Brighton at the weekend with Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz passed fit to start tonight.

Joining them two are Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori, while Gabriel Jesus and Mikel Merino are dropped to the bench.

You know how I don't like to publicly display confidence for fear of it backfiring, especially going to a ground at which we have such a poor record, but we could find ourselves in a very decent position going into te second leg after tonight.