As the saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it. That is what we expect will be Eddie Howe's thinking behind his Newcastle United team selection on Saturday.
Newcastle go looking for their 10th win in a row, which will be a club record, but to do so, they will have to defeat Bournemouth - something they've struggled to do under Eddie Howe.
Bournemouth are having a good season and certainly won't be pushovers, but Newcastle have a settled side which includes the 'best midfield in the Premier League' according to Troy Deeney.
Eddie Howe has no need to break up a winning team and we expect he will stick with the same XI as started on Wednesday night against Wolves.
Martin Dubravka - Another clean sheet on his 36th birthday on Wednesday. Just.
Tino Livramento - If he would believe in himself more and fire in early crosses rather than going backwards he'd be the ultimate right-back.
Sven Botman - Eddie Howe says Fabian Schar isn't 100% but Botman is doing well on the right side of centre anyway.
Dan Burn - Forming another solid partnership with Sven Botman in Schar's absence.
Lewis Hall - We are running out of superlatives for this lad. He's just absolute quality.
Bruno Guimaraes (c) - Didn't have his best game on Wednesday but still produced a moment of sheer magic for his pass to Alexander Isak for his second goal.
Sandro Tonali - Growing in stature game by game. He never seems to run out of energy.
Joelinton - Thanos!
Jacob Murphy - Looked decent again on Wednesday. Please keep it up, Murph.
Alexander Isak - Can he make it nine in nine? Can he go to twelve and break the Premier League record?
Anthony Gordon - Has eight goal contributions in the last eight games but is being overlooked because of Isak.
Let's hope that Eddie Howe can once again comfortably make changes on about 70 minutes to give Will Osula and Lewis Miley more game time.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
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23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
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24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
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24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
![]() |
24 | 16 | 43 |
5 |
![]() |
24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
![]() |
24 | 13 | 41 |
7 |
![]() |
24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
![]() |
24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
![]() |
24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
![]() |
24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
![]() |
24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
![]() |
24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
![]() |
24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
![]() |
24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
![]() |
24 | -17 | 27 |
16 |
![]() |
23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
![]() |
24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
![]() |
24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
![]() |
24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
![]() |
24 | -36 | 9 |