Manchester United lose two big players to suspension ahead of Newcastle United clash

It has been a great Christmas for Newcastle United picking up three points and another clean sheet in the 3-0 win against Aston Villa at St James' Park kicking things off nicely.

Newcastle jumped up to fifth in the table and are starting to look more like the Newcastle United of two seasons ago.

The difficulty level of opponents is slowly ramping up, however, so the Magpies will need to be at their best to continue this run of excellent form.

Thankfully, our next opponents, Manchester United, have served to make things just that little bit easier for us ahead of Monday's clash at Old Trafford.

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Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte will miss the game against Newcastle

Another dismal Man United display saw the Red Devils lose 2-0 to a resurgent Wolverhampton Wanderers who leapt out of the relegation zone thanks to that win.

Not only are Man United having a poor season with Ruben Amorim not having the magical effect they were expecting, but in that game against Wolves, Bruno Fernandes was sent off, and Manuel Ugarte picked up a booking that tipped him over the threshold and will now miss Monday's game.

Oh, what a shame. There's only one Bruno anyway, but there definitely will be only one Bruno on the Old Trafford pitch on Monday.

Newcastle won at Old Trafford last season - we can do it again

Old Trafford isn't usually our favourite place to go in the Premier League, but with the current form guide and their missing players, this is the best chance we'll have to claw back some points and goals in the head-to-head.

We did batter them 3-0 on their own turf last season in the Carabao Cup, which is always worth remembering. Old Trafford isn't the scary place it used to be.

Well, except for the fact that the roof might fall in on you at any given minute.