Newcastle United face Chelsea this weekend in what has become something of a heavyweight battle in the Premier League.
Despite the Magpies’ relative struggles during the Mike Ashley era, one thing they always maintained was a good record against Chelsea at St James’ Park.
For the first time in years though, the Magpies come into this game arguably as favourites, and a win here would leave them in an absolutely unbelievable position going into the World Cup break.
Chelsea, of course, are coming into this one in poor form after failing to win any of their previous three league games, so Newcastle will fancy their chances here.
With that in mind, we’ve had a go at predicting Eddie Howe’s starting XI for this one.
We think that Eddie Howe will make no fewer than seven changes to the heavily rotated team he fielded in the Carabao Cup in midweek.
This is pretty much the strongest team Howe can field at the moment.
The back five reverts back to the line-up we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in recent weeks as Dan Burn shifts back out to left-back, while Sven Botman, Fabian Schar and Kieran Trippier return to the team.
Bruno Guimaraes starts alongside Joelinton and Joe Willock in the midfield, while Allan Saint-Maximin starts his first Premier League game for a little while after injury.
Saint-Maximin would usually be rested for a game like this, but given Chelsea’s injury issues at wing-back we think that Howe will want his strongest wide options on the pitch in order to exploit this weakness in Graham Potter’s side.
Callum Wilson received good news after earning a World Cup call-up this week, and he starts again here.
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