Report: Key Chelsea man will be missing this afternoon as his side face Newcastle in the EPL

Newcastle United host Chelsea this afternoon in a 3pm kick-off but one important figure will be absent from his post.

Both sides come into this game missing some top players, but Chelsea also come into this one with their manager suspended reports Football London.

Mauricio Pochettino has picked up three yellow cards this season and as such faces a touchline ban, therefore he will have to watch on from the stands while he turns to Jesus ... Perez, his assistant.

Pochettino picked up his latest yellow in the 4-4 draw with Man City

Poch's latest offence that saw him land a yellow card was in the 4-4 draw with Manchester City when the Argentine stormed onto the pitch to have words with Anthony Taylor which followed bookings when Chelsea faced Brighton and Burnley.

Sportimage Ltd via Alamy

The Chelsea boss clearly isn't happy about the punishment, but has admitted that he needs to keep his emotions in check.

"Sometimes we are frustrated because we were talking in the last managers' meeting [about this]. The coaches need to be more involved in these decisions."

Will Poch's absence be an advantage?

We're not sure that the coaches should be involved in the decisions around punishments for coaches. Would a judge ask a criminal how long they think they should serve in prison?

It just remains to be seen now if Poch's absence in the dugout can work to our advantage, although touchline bans are pretty pointless these days with all the open lines of communication between the manager and his assistant in the dugout.

If our predicted XI is close to the one Howe puts out then we believe that, despite our injury problems, we are strong enough to beat Chelsea, especially at home.