Sunday's game against Wolverhampton Wanders could potentially be huge in determining Newcastle United's season.
Newcastle are not firing on all cylinders but are undefeated this season whereas Wolves have managed just one point from three games.
However, Newcastle tend to struggle at Molineux and often come away with just one point from the Midlands. If Newcastle can break the Molinuex curse and put in a convincing performance away from home it could be the catalyst for Newcastle to get their season underway properly.
Eddie Howe has plenty of decisions to make with his starting lineup, and this is how we think he'll set his team up on Sunday.
Nick Pope - Newacstle's best shot stopper by a country mile, and we have five of them
Kieran Trippier - Tino Livramento will be exhausted from all that game time he had for England. In all seriousness, Tripps has been around to train with Howe this past week and that will likely lead to him getting the nod over Tino.
Fabian Schar - Back from suspension and straight back into the first team. Welcome back you handsome swine!
Dan Burn - BDB has been impressive so far this season. Long may it continue.
Lloyd Kelly - Bit of a coin toss this one. Kelly got an assist last week and had no international duty so we think he'll get the nod over Lewis Hall despite his impressive showing for England U21s.
Sandro Tonali - There was some debate in FEED Towers as to whether Sean Longstaff would be picked over Tonali to start given his two full games for Italy. But fitness wasn't Tonali's issue, it was match sharpness, and the only way to build that up is to play matches, so I've overruled and gone with Sandro.
Bruno Guimaraes (c) - El Capitan Fantastico was not so fantastico for Brazil in midweek according to Brazilian media, but it's our captain, our main man, our sweet cheese, our good time boy,
Joelinton - We don't care that he's had more poor performances than good so far this season (although it's probably 50/50 isn't it?) we bloody love Joey and if he's fit he's going in our XI!
Harvey Barnes - Whether he starts on the left or the right only Howe knows but he's been too good to drop that's for sure.
Alexander Isak - Well, it's not going to be Callum "Weetabix Bones" Wilson, is it? Besides, he's got a scoring streak to continue. Can he make it five goals in four games for club and country?
Anthony Gordon - Again, left or right, it doesn't matter, but Gordon shook off more rust by playing over an hour in each game for England during the break and is looking better each passing minute.
Eddie Howe might see things slightly differently, it's much harder to predict a starting lineup when most of your players are fit. It does mean that we'll have a decent bench, though.
Newcastle really should be winning this one, but given our away form and the Molineux curse, who knows what will happen?
HOWAY EDDIE HOWE'S WE LOVE DRAWS AT MOLINEUX MAGS!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
7 | 11 | 18 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
7 | 9 | 17 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
7 | 9 | 17 |
4 |
Chelsea
|
7 | 8 | 14 |
5 |
Aston Villa
|
7 | 3 | 14 |
6 |
Brighton
|
7 | 3 | 12 |
7 |
Newcastle United
|
7 | 1 | 12 |
8 |
Fulham
|
7 | 2 | 11 |
9 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
7 | 6 | 10 |
10 |
Nottingham Forest
|
7 | 1 | 10 |
11 |
Brentford
|
7 | 0 | 10 |
12 |
West Ham United
|
7 | -1 | 8 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
7 | -2 | 8 |
14 |
Manchester United
|
7 | -3 | 8 |
15 |
Leicester
|
7 | -3 | 6 |
16 |
Everton
|
7 | -8 | 5 |
17 |
Ipswich
|
7 | -8 | 4 |
18 |
Crystal Palace
|
7 | -5 | 3 |
19 |
Southampton
|
7 | -11 | 1 |
20 |
Wolves
|
7 | -12 | 1 |