Newcastle United club captain Jamaal Lascelles singles out 22-year-old for praise in programme notes
Newcastle United face a huge Premier League test today, live on Sky Sports, as Arsenal come to St James' Park for a 4:30 pm kick-off.
Arsenal will be buoyed by the fact that Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the season yesterday at the hands of Crystal Palace and will be feeling this is the perfect opportunity to close the gap.
However, the Gunners will also be very aware that St James' Park has not been a happy hunting ground for them of late.
Newcastle have won the last three meetings between these two clubs in the north east, while the Gunners have failed to score in any of those games.
Jamaal Lascelles backs the Toon Army to push the team to victory today
Newcastle United's club captain, Jamaal Lascelles, has had a rough year being out of action for over 12 months due to an ACL injury, but he is back in contention and made his return to the Premier League as a substitute last week against Bournemouth.
The 31-year-old has given his opinion on today's game in the Matchday Programme, where he says the crowd will give the side that extra 10% to spur them to get the job done. He also praised Will Osula after his brace against Bradford on Wednesday.
"The supporters give us that extra energy and our players are built for that, and for tests against the top teams. That’s the level we want to be at, too, and to get there we need to consistently compete against the likes of Arsenal.
"So far this season there have been good performances and we’ve had a lot of clean sheets, but I think the midweek cup win over Bradford was ideal for us in terms of us scoring four goals.
"Yes, it was against League One opposition, but I believe the players who scored will definitely benefit from getting the ball in the back of the net and hopefully we can carry that into this afternoon.
"Credit to Will Osula for his two goals. He’s a great guy and a great athlete. He’s still young but he’s rapid, can play on the right and left as well as centrally, and he showed on Wednesday exactly what he’s capable of."
Who should start up front against Arsenal?
-
Will Osula46%
-
Nick Woltemade54%
Will Osula or Nick Woltemade to start today?
The official Newcastle United Twitter page used Will Osula to hype today's game. Whether that's a hit that Osula will be starting ahead of Nick Woltemade today, we'll have to wait and see.
We doubt Osula will start, to be fair, but we'd be very shocked if he doesn't make an appearance at some point.
Whoever does start could definitely do with getting an early goal, as the longer we go without one during the game, the more tense the crowd are likely to become.
