Newcastle United travel to the Big Smoke today to face an embattled Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge. Kick-off is 8pm live Sky Sports.
Eddie Howe takes his Newcastle lads to face an underachieving Chelsea tonight hoping they can build on their impressive 4-1 win at St James' Park in November.
Now that many player are returning from their long-term injuries, these lineup predictions are becoming much more of a debate than they previously were and today's debate was over who will start on the flanks.
The image put out on X by the club features Harvey Barnes and Jacob Murphy, which we were wondering if they were maybe hinting at something, but then ... would Eddie Howe really drop Anthony Gordon against Chelsea? Would he play Gordon down the middle with Barnes and Murphy either side, thus dropping Alexander Isak? So we've disregarded that image completely and gone with this ...
Martin Dubravka - Dubz will be full of confidence after keeping a clean sheet last week and producing some top saves in the process.
Tino Livramento - Tino gets his chance to shine with Kieran Trippier out for the next couple of games, he's hardly let us down so far so we back him to get stuck into his old club.
Fabian Schar - The Toonminator was like a brick wall last week and we'll be hoping for more of the same this week.
Sven Botman - Looked better last week against Wolves after his Arsenal disaster and subsequent rest against Blackburn. It will have done him the world of good.
Dan Burn - With Tino covering for Trippier and Lewis Hall ineligible to play, this one is a no-brainer this week.
Sean Longstaff - Seany is the first name of the familiar midfield three we're expecting to see.
Bruno Guimaraes - Bruo became a dad for the second time at the weekend but you try and stop him from turning up to work tonight!
Joe Willock - It surely can't be a coincidence that we've started looking like the NUFC of last year since Willock returned to action.
Miguel Almiron - Could be Miggy, could be Murphy. It could even be Gordon on the right, we honestly don't know so we took a punt.
Alexander Isak - A big game for Isak to get his teeth into after scoring last week. He still looks a bit off where he was, but he's getting there.
Anthony Gordon - We definitely think Gordon will be playing, but he could be on the right with Barnes on the left. What's going on, man?
The good thing about not being able to choose our forwards is that it means we have options on the bench that could really impact the game.
Whoever misses out at the start will no doubt come on later in the game to take a run at tired legs.
We've already proved that we can demolish this lot, so let's prove it wasn't a fluke. Howay Eddie Howe's Too Many Wingers Mags!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -9 | 16 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Wolves
|
15 | -14 | 10 |
19 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |