Looking at this Newcastle United team v Manchester City.
Eddie Howe’s side aiming to follow up that excellent win over Manchester United in midweek.
Victorious against the odds, as United overcame a shocking referee and having to play 10 v 11 against Man U for the majority of the match.
Newcastle United have now won five of their last seven matches in all competitions.
If making that six wins in eight, United will be just one more victory away from a return to Wembley, an FA Cup semi-final.
It would also of course be a huge confidence boost in advance of Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
As a reminder, this was the Newcastle team v Man U three nights ago:
Ramsdale, Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Joelinton, Ramsey, Elanga, Barnes, Gordon
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Eddie Howe saying that Nick Woltemade should be available after having got over a bout of illness.
Eddie Howe though still without Tino Livramento, Fabian Schar, Bruno Guimaraes, Lewis Miley and Emil Krafth.
Whilst Jacob Ramsey is also missing after the Man U referee gave him that ridiculous red card.
Taking all of that into consideration…
This is my predicted Newcastle United team v Manchester City:
Ramsdale, Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Joelinton, Willock, Barnes, Gordon, Woltemade
If the above ends up as the reality, it would mean two changes for Eddie Howe compared to the team that started against Manchester United.
With coming in – Woltemade, Willock
Dropping out – Elanga, Ramsey
When it comes to team selection, a lot of this will of course depend on the physical condition of players.
Especially when you consider that United had to play a man down for the majority of that Man U match.
Such a tough mini run (inside such a tough long run) of games, with Man City only three nights after the Man U game, then Barcelona three nights after this one.
A shame that Jacob Ramsey has to sit this one out, as he has been getting better and better as time has gone on. Joe Willock has also done well though in recent times and when coming on for Barnes to play the second half, he was decent on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be a case of both Tonali and Joelinton once again starting, as United will need to compete in midfield AND not a lot of other fit and available options.
Barnes was sacrificed on Wednesday to bring Willock on when Ramsey was red carded, so he should be fine to start. He had a great game and scored both goals in November when Newcastle defeated Man City.
Anthony Gordon is our best and most dangerous attacking player, so hopefully we see him start again. A massive moment on Wednesday when he raced back to win back possession off Casemiro, ran at the Man U defence to win the penalty, then scored it himself.
I am guessing that Yoane Wissa is struggling to get fully fit and anyway, I fancy Nick Woltemade to start tonight. He was also a big factor in that 2-1 win over Man City when playing through the middle and could and should have scored two or three as United created so many chances.
Not a lot of obvious alternatives for Eddie Howe to bring into his starting eleven this Saturday night but Sven Botman is one of the possibles.
However, Thiaw and Burn did well on Wednesday and the Big Lad from Blyth usually gets plenty of joy in his battles with Haaland.
Aaron Ramsdale did more than enough on Wednesday to keep the shirt, whist at full-back, Trippier and Hall were excellent against Man U. Plus, a very tough match to throw Shahar and/or Alex Murphy into.
As I said earlier though, Eddie Howe may feel it would be too much to ask certain players to start against Man U, Man City and Barcelona in such a short space of time, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we did see more than two changes as I have suggested will be the case.