No Bruno Guimaraes for Toon today: Newcastle United team news ahead of meeting with Aston Villa
Newcastle United take on Aston Villa at St James' Park in the Premier League this afternoon. Kick-off is at 2 pm live on Sky Sports.
Both sides picked up victories in Europe in midweek, but while Newcastle were in action on Wednesday night on home soil, Aston Villa had to travel to Turkey and back for a game on Thursday night.
Hopefully, that extra day's rest and lack of travel will play into Newcastle's hands today.
Going into the match today, there were question marks over the availability of Bruno Guimaraes after the Toon captain was forced off through injury in the win over PSV.
Newcastle receive double injury boost ahead of Villa game
There is no spot for Bruno in the squad today as Eddie Howe makes the sensible decision to let him recover.
Dan Burn and Will Osula both return to the squad.
Lewis Miley replacing Bruno Guimaraes is the only change Howe has made to the starting XI after Newcastle's Champions League win in midweek.
Aston Villa have some danger men in from the start
It's about as strong a side as Howe could have put out and after all three forwards scored in midweek we're hoping that the confidence levels will have raised enough that the struggles against Wolves don't rear their head again today.
Youri Tielemans starts for Aston Villa along with Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins, so they are carrying a real threat in attack that Newcastle will have to be wary of.
We have more than enough to see this one through on paper, so let's see if that translates on the pitch.
