Looking at this Newcastle United team v Chelsea.
Eddie Howe’s side aiming to follow up that excellent performance against Barcelona, a performance that deserved a Champions League win, only to have that very late penalty deny them.
United also looking to make it consecutive Premier League wins, having defeated Man U in the last one, despite NUFC playing with ten men for most of the game.
With nine Premier League matches remaining, Eddie Howe’s team now needing to kick on if they are to bother the upper end of the table.
Where better than a stadium that has been such an unhappy hunting ground for Newcastle United, only one win in the last 14 visits in all competitions, with 13 defeats.
As a reminder, this was the Newcastle team v Barcelona four nights ago:
Ramsdale, Trippier, Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Ramsey, Joelinton, Elanga, Barnes, Osula
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Eddie Howe saying that it looks set to be the same matchday squad for Saturday, as was the case against Barcelona on Tuesday.
So it looks like at least four players remain missing. Eddie Howe still set to be without Lewis Miley, Bruno Guimaraes, Emil Krafth and Fabian Schar.
However, the manager having revealed that it was his decision that Anthony Gordon was not fit to start against Barcelona due to illness.
So the manager set to have the former Everton player available for his starting eleven today, the same appears to be the case with Tino Livramento, who has had two sub appearances off the bench this past week after returning from injury.
Taking all of that into consideration…
This is my predicted Newcastle United team v Chelsea:
Ramsdale, Livarmento, Botman, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Ramsey, Joelinton, Gordon, Barnes, Woltemade
If the above ends up as the reality, it would mean four changes for Eddie Howe compared to the team that started against Barcelona.
With coming in – Woltemade, Gordon, Botman, Livramento
Dropping out – Elanga, Thiaw, Trippier, Osula
A huge game to follow against Barcelona but I think Eddie Howe will still go with what he considers pretty much his strongest fit and available team to try and beat Chelsea.
Gordon will definitely start but I think we will see Big Nick restored through the middle for this Chelsea match, he played really well against them at St James’ Park less than three months ago, scoring twice. Though I do expect then the plan will be to go for pace against Barcelona and Anthony Gordon to play through the middle in that one.
I think it makes sense for Trippier and Thiaw to have much needed shifts off here, which is made an easier decision when you have Livramento and Botman available to replace them. So I don’t see that as a weakening of the team.
Chelsea are currently in the fifth Champions League qualifying position, if Newcastle United win today, that will then close the gap to six points between the two.
The fact Eddie Howe has had four days gap between Barcelona and today, then another four days gap to Barcelona on Wednesday, gives him a bit more freedom with his team selection and asking players to start again. Chelsea have had only three days since PSG away and then it is three days until they play the French club at Stamford Bridge, so it will be interesting to see what Liam Rosenior does with his team selection tonight.