Eddie Howe has named the Newcastle United side that will take on Brighton and Hove Albion in today's 3pm kick-off at St James' Park.
We called this lineup absolutely bang on with the only real surprise coming in the form of youngster Lewis Miley taking a place on the Newcastle bench.
Miley returned to training this week but Eddie Howe downplayed the likelihood of his return saying they were going to give him time to get back to full fitness.
Of course he's only on the bench today and will likely not make it onto the pitch for this game, but it certainly does suggest we'll see him in action at some point in at least one of the upcoming games against Chelsea.
Alexander Isak has recovered from his toe injury to lead the line against Brighton with Anthony Gordon moved back to his more familiar and indeed effective role on the wide left.
Lewis Hall get the nod over Lloyd Kelly at left-back which was one position we weren't 100% convinced about when we made our prediction.
Howe has resisted the temptation to start Gordon and Harvey Barnes again opting for Jacob Murphy on the right while Joe Willock has to make do with a place on the bench.
Meanwhile Fabian Hurzeler has welcomed Georginio Rutter back to his line up after he recovered from a knock which kept him out of international duty.
As suspected, there's not place in the side for former Newcastle target Joao Pedro who misses the game through injury.
Yankuba Minteh is nowhere to be seen on the team sheet so still doesn't get to make his St James' Park debut. However, there are a couple of other former Newcastle targets in Ferdi Kadioglu and Evan Ferguson named in the starting line up with Brajan Gruda on the bench.
It's come as a shock to Newcastle fans to not even see Minteh's name on the team sheet at all. Maybe he's bottled it?
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 |